Photo credit: Pennsylvania College of Art & Design

Excerpt from the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design press release:

The mural in the PCA&D portico is being created by Root 222, a Reading, Pa.-based group of artists who are also members of PCA&D’s alumni community.  Deric Hettinger ’02, Schon Wanner ’08 and Anthony Mark comprise this collaborative that functions like a musical improvisational trio.

Their painting will “serve as a visual map to the metaphysical core of the poem…” according to  Root 222′s artist statement. . . ”The mural’s backdrop – a sun set within a nocturne – serves as a reference to the duality contained in the poem, as Szybist’s speaker is both compassionate and fierce. The sky could also be interpreted as a cosmos, a point of creative origin. This aspect seems especially appropriate given that the painting serves as a singular point in a city-wide celebration of creativity, to be installed on a building dedicated to the instruction of the next generation of young artists.”

The poem for PCA&D’s project, “All Times and All Tenses Alive In this Moment,” was written by Mary Szybist, a native of Williamsport, Pa., and an assistant professor of English at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.  Her poem is presented in a sunburst format with no linear beginning or end, and Szybist states that she was “…thinking about faith and doubt and how the two can be entwined and even, perhaps, simultaneous.  I wanted each line to read as a declaration and as an open question.”

Szybist’s poem was featured by Poets.org, the web site of the Academy of American Poets, as a “poem of the day” in January 2011, and will be included in her second book, “Incarnadine,” which is forthcoming from Graywolf Press.  “All Times and All Tenses Alive In this Moment” was selected with input from the public and by a committee comprised of PCA&D staff, faculty members, alumni and students.

We are excited to announce that the Poetry Paths piece at Tabor Community Services & Eastern Market was installed last week thanks to a robust collaboration.

Chris Dawson Architect, AIA, the designer of the piece states that “the idea was to create a versatile piece that would serve the noted weekly market but also reference the “front porch” vibe picked up on while walking around the neighborhood. .  . The “branches” or “fingers” off the main spine grew out of the knowledge that the best interactions often occur when seated perpendicular to someone & then a little playfulness was introduced with the angles of those with the thinking that it should read as a piece of art too. The idea that it glows grew out of a notion of being inviting & also creating a secure or safe space.

The poem, an excerpt from Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to the Chair,” can be viewed above.