It was an act of pure subterfuge. I have no regrets.

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So, the university that employs me holds an annual "Staff Art Show". Now it is quite obvious that I am not an artist in any formal way. I like to draw cartoon-ish doodles and make crafty things, but I would never say that I am anything close to a legitimate artist. I am like an artist's second-cousin-twice-removed-by-marriage. With that said, I definitely entered a piece of work in the show. Let me tell you why I did it and how I found a loophole to make myself feel better (read: less nauseous).

Since I am a poet who happens to love photography (even though I am not a great photographer) - - I used a picture that I took last summer, worked some digital manipulation magic, transferred that image to a canvas, painted on it a bit, and then placed a poem of mine as the cherry on top. Here's what that looks like:

Copyright Jennifer Klein, 2013. This was the piece I submitted to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Staff Art Show. It is titled, "The Second Time Around". 

Basically, I took my strong suit (poetry) and fancied it up with a photograph (art). I gave it a title and labeled the medium "Mixed Media/Visual Poetry". LOOPHOLE!!!

That was the how, here's the why. People constantly assume that poetry is boring. That is is hard to understand. That it is not accessible to them. I thought that maybe, if I could literally show people the beauty of poetry, they might change their minds and give it a whirl. Even if they don't see this piece and fall over with inspiration to buy the complete works of Keats or Burroughs, I'll be content if they just stop thinking that it's boring.

The art show starts April 1st and runs through the 12th. I'll let you know how it goes.

Wish me luck...




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