Call and Response: Collaboration at a Distance Round 5

Online Art Exhibition

August 7, 2020

Call and Response: Collaboration at a Distance Round 5

“Call and Response” is a project organized by Kristine Schomaker, Sheli Silverio, S. Vollie Osborn, Emily Wiseman and Susan T. Kurland of Shoebox PR/Art and Cake.

Drawing on the tradition of Jazz and Exquisite Corpse, this project is meant as a way for us to stay connected, to check in with each other and to support each other. This is collaboration at a distance.

Please join us for the opening reception of the online exhibition via zoom Saturday August 8th, 3-5pm pst.

Featured Artists:

Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja/Dena Novak, Anita Sinclair/David Forlano, Ann Storc/Catherine W Singer, Arzu Arda Kosar/Galina Kovshilovsky, Ashira Siegel Fox/June Stoddard, Beanie Kaman/Maria Sathaliya, Brooke Metcalfe/Kate Lutzner, Dellis Frank/Jason Hadley, Diana Nicholette Jeon/Aazam Irilian, Emily Wiseman/Rochelle Shicoff, Eva-Marie Amiya/Adrienne Cole, Faina Kumpan/Joe Price, Francisco Alvarado/Brenda Oelbaum, Genie Davis/Susan T Kurland, Heather E. Dunn/Anne M Bray, Ibuki Kuramochi/Sean-Michael Gettys, Jamia Weir/Kate Joiner, Jason Jenn/Elaine T Nguyen, Kayla Cloonan/Michelle Lopate, Kimberlee Koym-Murteira/Shari Palidino, Lina Kogan/Robyn Alatorre, Lya Nagado/Corinne Lightweaver, Madeline Arnault/Andrea Nhuch, Martin Cox/Kristine Schomaker, Michal Greenboim/Kerrie Smith, Pascha Goodwin/Nancy Kay Turner, Sarah Lofthouse/Jody Zellen, Shaney Watters/Michele Mekele, Sina Evans/Meaghan Miller Lopez, Sofia Alexiou/Nancy Good, Sue Cutler/Kristyn Lee, Susan Osborn/Angela Brooks, Thomas jones/Lorraine Bubar

Call and Response: Collaboration at a Distance Round #1 can be seen here Round 2 can be seen here Round 3 can be seen here and Round #4 can be seen here

Round 6 is open for participation through August 9th at 4pm pst. Info on how to submit is here

Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja and Dena Novak

Andrea Nhuch and Madeline Arnault

Angela Brooks and Susan Osborn

Ann Storc and Catherine Singer

Arzu Adra Kosar and Galina Kovshilovsky

Ashira Siegel Fox June Stoddard

Beanie Kaman and Maria Sathaliya

Brooke Metcalfe and Kate Lutzner

David Forlano and Anita Sinclair

Dellis Frank and Jason Hadley

Elaine T Nguyen and Jason Jenn

1 Jason Jenn

2 Elaine T Nguyen

Emily Wiseman and Rochelle Shicoff

Eva-Marie Amiya and Adrienne Cole

Faina Kumpan and Joseph Price

Francisco Alvarado and Jen Snoeyink and Brenda Oldbaum

10b Brenda Oelbaum

12b Brenda Oelbaum

14b Brenda Oelbaum

18b Brenda Oelbaum

26 Brenda Oelbaum

Genie Davis and Susan T Kurland

1 Genie Davis

Light Years

The moon is on fire tonight.
Just half a moon, and
I’m here on the ashy earth,
watching.

I ache for the Milky Way,
the vast celestial spin,
the limitless possibilities
of us.

When you feel the fading dark
is it morning coming,
a bright dawn?
Or the moon burning like the sun…

dying embers of love
the collapse inward
to a dark star,
an eternal night.

I am a pinprick of time,
we both are, you and I.
A million light years
of good bye.

3 Genie Davis

Breathe

I remember summer at the Cape
finding the color of the sky at Magic Hour.
The grasses wavering on the Truro shore,
the great blue Atlantic.

The Pacific stays colder in the summer.
But our weather, warmer in the winter,
is a trade, a bargaining with nature,
just like masking up to go outside.

I once had the junior execs salivating
over a screenplay set in
a dystopian world where
the air was contaminated.

Clean air safe enough to breathe
was sold at a price.
The rebels went out into the
common air, clad in masks.

I was green-lit, ‘til the shark
at the top of the food chain said
Air going bad? No way
Unbelievable – hey—

Have any comedies about
talking dogs? So I wrote one.
Let me say that what
is unbelievable now

is this – that kiss of warm summer,
and running barefaced through the dusk.
A certain gilded azure cast
to the endless sky,

you took in the air.
And hugged strangers.
And kissed random lovers.
And it all ended far too soon.

5 Genie Davis

To Begin

As the last gold fades away,
the vestiges of day –
royal and wire-crossed brocade,
a discarded gown.

Take a deep breath in,
meditate your skin.
Air and life reside
where you can no longer hide.

I have found a place to stay
where it is I cannot say,
watch me from afar –
like a strange and distant star

barely seen but glimmering.
What will tomorrow bring?
Will we still find cause to sing?
Mask the invisible smile.

The wind picks up and stills,
it is warm but there’s a chill,
promises made and then forgot
wish you may and wish you not –

it’s really quite a lot
to begin.

7 Genie Davis

Second Act

This is only the second act
of a three-act script.
Try not to worry about the way
your character arc is going.

This year is just one of the woven knots
in the bright weave of your life.
Don’t despair about
moving on

From what no longer serves you.
Let go as if the knot were to unweave
and you can always change the pattern
to repair it.

And you can.
Count not on what you can do
for the way you are,
but on the ways, many ways, you will change.

That is inevitable.
We are but one of the glittering stars,
some glimmering out of reach
from ordinary vision.

We are the fabric of our lives.
We are the words on the page.
Leave plenty of white space,
my plaid-suited agent told me.

Readers like the white space,
the empty space they can fill in
by inference.
I leave it here.

…

This is only the second act,
try and breathe in.
Try and
remember that.

9 Genie Davis

Flowers

If I were just a flower face –
a golden image
in a bright blue vase –
I’d smile.

We are just here, awhile.
Transitory,
like sun and shade,
just one step

in the human parade.
And yet we fear and fume
and fail.
Ready to close our

biggest sale.
So look within my sunny gaze
and take your place
in the human race –

As we tackle all
the odds.

10a Susan T Kurland

Dog Days

As the hazy summer warmed
with the feel of fall right behind,
Where are the family gatherings
and afternoon swims?
Placed on hold,
Hidden behind a mask

11a Genie Davis

Masked

We are of this world,
but a fragment,
caught between two places
in time and space.

Where you are now
is just the beginning.
And I understand, you could
only stay a while.

We have been graced
by your love.
My children remember being children
with you.

I remember being another
being myself,
in another house,
always my kitten.

Now, we are placed on hold
just this moment. At your transition
we will be masked,
as it is now –

but the coverings
will not veil our tears.
One more night with you,
reminiscing.

Helping you up and down the stairs,
dear companion.
Remember, we are all fragments
blue and glistening

caught between
this world
and the passage
to the next.

13 Genie Davis

I Found Green Jade

There is only one way out.
And it is the wrong direction.
Caught between desperate measures,
you always choose.

I have a suggestion –
let’s just keep driving
and never stop, past the place
of no return and loss.

If it is not one thing it is another.
Some easily preventable,
others entirely outside control,
a law of averages gone off-balance.

I stood wind buffeted on the edge of a cliff,
looking out to the wild sea.
The trail was hard and steep,
I needed your hand to help me down.

I found green jade, mother of pearl,
the wreckage of an old car,
riddled with barnacles and rust.
There was only one way out and it was down.

We sat on the rocks and waited until
the tide chased us back.
Until the inexorable tide came in,
and began to cut off all escape.

Heather Dunn and Anne M Bray

Ibuki Kuramochi and Sean-Michael Gettys

1 Ibuki Kuramochi

2 Sean-Michael Gettys

3 Ibuki Kuramochi

5 Ibuki Kuramochi

7 Ibuki Kuramochi

8 Sean-Michael Gettys

9 Ibuki Kuramochi

10 Sean-Michael Gettys

11 Ibuki Kuramochi

13 Ibuki Kuramochi

14 Sean-Michael Gettys

15 Ibuki Kuramochi

17 Ibuki Kuramochi

Jamia Weir and Kate Joiner

Call and Response gives artists the opportunity to explore creative avenues that otherwise might not come about, through a unique collaboration. What seemed simple enough as a commitment became a forced creative process and practice, between two artists who know nothing about each other and have never met. Commitment to your partner was the only rule.

What started off with fun and whimsy, quickly and instinctively took a serious tone as the intensity of the present day came through in the middle of this back and forth. The artists continued to go through the emotions of what was happening in the world, while drawing upon each other’s thoughts and ideas, simultaneously pushing norms and boundaries in their own art practices. Maybe those deep thoughts are there within all of us but through the use of the Call and Response project, it brought things quickly to the surface and the response became a deep dive into the flow.

Kate Joiner and Jamia Weir