Cryogenics

It's warm & thumping
-perhaps too strongly-
So I carve a hole in the snow
cold & wet on my fingers
and cover it over
to muffle the beating.

Sleeping until the day
you're ready to dig it up
and feel it still
swollen with heat
in your hands.

POEM: Purple

We both know it's purple
That's just the color it is
For the longest time you would call it reddish-blue
or warm-indigo at best
You'd go no further

But yesterday -
Yesterday
you called it "violet" (in quotation marks)
You tip-toed all the way to "violet"
That's as close as you'd come

Someone - and we don't know who -
Someone
took a drop of blue
took a drop of red
set them down softly
into the watery glass

And the colors swirled
wrapped 'round one another
played & danced until they both disappeared
Red infusing the blue with itself
Blue infusing the red with itself

They connected quick together
like chromosomes
like the warm embrace of two old friends
like sunset kissing nightfall
like Legos locked down tight

We both know it's purple
That's just the color it is
And while I call it that in my secret thoughts
My lips are slow to part & say it
waiting until the one day -
The one day
when the quotation marks fall off
to clink on the ground
and the sound of "violet"
swirls into purple

POEM: Powdered Metal Flower Petals

vertical vortex laid horizontal
for ease of entry through bi-fold doors

portal petals sliding open reveal the liquid warmth inside
waves parting, whirlpool tugging
pulling me down to the depths of its lair
womb-like cave of sparkle treasure
trough of treasure chest

glimmer silk like moistened jewels
wrap around the deep-sea diver
bubbles forming - causing fins
to reach extension, fan out wide
straightened curves of tangled leisure
meshed with work & sweat of brow

stamen feathers soft as iron
swab formations on the wall
hang on stalactite for my stalagmite
thrust out poison in the well

with a quiet resolution
dilute the masculine solution
with pollen dust like cirrus clouds
sweet onset of the bends & angles
the quiet pause of rock formations
new dimension roof ripped off

the powdered metal flower petals
dissolve the vortex
kiss it closed

POEM: Between Earth & the Moon

Her coming foretold on tattooed skin
She passed between Earth & the moon
Carried on wings of comet tails
Inking the sky with wet light

Trajectory drawing a paper-thin ring
Wrapped ‘round the sun at high noon
We tried to turn eyes but failed
Transfixed by ecliptic, elliptic flight

Fire & ice hang like stones ‘round her neck
Flowing in ribbons which tie back her mane
Her song birthing stars as she dances along
Trailing a pathway behind

Gravity-bound & held firm in the womb
Young souls leap with hope at her words
Rippled & tilting & lilting & lulling
Her subjects to gaze on her beauty by night

And quick as she came she moves on to another
Land. World. Universe. Time.
As we suckle the memory of transient things
Which pass between Earth & the moon

POEM: Strange-Thought Fella

We don’t know ‘bout that strange-thought fella
Importing new-fangled ideas
Big city ways in our closed-gate village
Too much weight in that thinking of his
‘cause it makes our traditions cave in

a witch in the kitchen
cooking up a brew
smells to high heaven
of outsider stew

To the pitchforks & torches!
Hunt him down, Strip his skin
Draw & quarter, Tar & feather
QUICK! Homogenize him!

We tried so long to break his spirit
Conformity shackles, whips & chains
To beat the wild outta the stallion
Wash the black outta the sheep

But every lashing sliced thin air
Every flogging failed
He somehow passed through the midst of us
A buttered-up pig slipping right through

The truth we only whisper when the doors are locked
His scent left a stain on our town
That our wills & rituals can’t clean
We cry sometimes that he’s gone

that strange-thought fella
we loved to hate

POEM: The Anti-Nothing

What lingers on the other side of nothing?
What squirms in the pit
Where blackholes dump their trash?
Spew their collections?
Bury their loot?

Slippery lip
Where the universe spills over its edge
Into somethingness
Anti-nothingness
Perfect newness

Colors hum there
Matter, mass
Fresh amoebas
Foreign, congealing
Into new music, novel mist

That random place where anti-dust & anti-heat
Implode & churn out anti-light
Anti-matter springs, unfolds
Anti-worlds & anti-words
Anti-poems, anti-songs

Anti-planets, anti-suns
Ante up in the anti-space
Where Auntie Em looks down in black & white
Swabbing the head with an anti-rag
Dipped in antique water

Anti-thoughts in the anti-mind
Swim around in the anti-time
Where far & near are upside down
Anti-pulsars spin around
In retrograde

The anti-wormholes are antebellum
Post-apocalyptic felons
Anti-war & anti-peace
Anti-teeth in anti-jaws
Speak anti-rules & anti-laws
While living anti-true & false

Pooling up & cooling down
In the land where life creates itself
To shake the known with quasar-quakes
Giving birth
On the inside of everything
Nothing included
Nothing reborn
As something

TAI - Review & Interview

Top Notch Book-Arts of John Luc Hargis

As TAI is growing quickly, I have to say it is hard to keep up even with the talent of all our contributors, who are also working artists. I thought it would be important to start interviewing some of our very own staff who have bravely stepped up to contribute in not only writing about the arts in our community, but who also have exceptional talent in various fields of art. I am embarrassed to say, that for some of them I am viewing their work for the first time, whereas others, I have been aware of for years. As TAI readers, I hope you enjoy becoming more acquainted with their work as we continue to cover the arts in Ohio.

I personally work in printmaking and come across a lot of artists that work in altered books. I even took a few bookmaking classes in college but never really did anything exceptional with it. In reviewing John’s work, I honestly have to say that he quickly became one of my new favorite local artists. I don’t know how I haven’t been acquainted with his work before. His work is crisp, pristinely executed and ultra thought provoking. He literally uses recycled books, which in elementary terms are full of verbal information. But this fact takes a backseat role, as the books at times are used as a canvas displaying layers of visual information. His work shows an entertaining play between the concept of written information and that of visual storytelling.

Conceptually, I found his work to have an interesting weight dynamic as my thoughts were in a constant seesaw of comparison reflecting on content between title and that of visual dialogue. His work questions how various types of information are presented as language-verbal, auditory, visual and (by using recycled found objects) even the relevance history having lingual weight. In my view, he certainly accomplishes the saying of ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. I hope you enjoy the interview below and I will certainly be following John’s work as it progresses.

For all you art collectors out there John is my Collectors Pick suggestion for this month.

-Stephanie Sypsa



You recently exhibited your work? What was the gallery?
JLH-My 'Altered Library' was on display at Kenosis Gallery for Experimental Art at 14 Park Ave South in Mansfield. It is located on the south side of the Square right next to Park Street Pottery.

How were you able to get into this show?
JHL-Kenosis is a brand-new gallery opened up by my good friends Jason Kaufman & Jenny Lucas. They concerted a downtown storefront into a combined gallery / living space. Jason & I are both heavily involved in the YelloWall Collective - a group of artists, writers, musicians & random creative folk who actively engage the community with cutting-edge art & artistic living. When Jason & Jenny opened the gallery in November, I was honored to be the first artist to display. They are actively searching for other artists specializing in non-traditional media, performance art, highly conceptualized work and anyone who is hovering at the edge of 'art', pushing beyond the established boundaries & has the technical ability to pull it off. Anyone interested can contact Jason @ 567.203.8018 or Jenny @ 440.315.7492

I am really impressed with your work. I mean I wanted to include your whole portfolio on here! What is your current artist statement for your current body of work?
JLH-Since I'm never at a shortage of words, which could take a few pages... The abbreviated version would be:
The main purpose of the Altered Library is to feed our desire for a quick story - an on-the-spot narrative. The pieces serve as a commentary on how our society has shifted from a slow/easy/taking-time-to-read-a-book-under-a-tree culture to one that snatches blurbs/sound bites/blogs/text messages/tweets on the fly.

With impatience, short attention spans & the desire to have what we want right now being undeniable realities of where we are as a culture, I want to create an appealing visual snack to satiate our bent towards immediacy. Perhaps the works are nothing more than another spineless offering to our flaws. Or, perhaps, they are providing the viewer an opportunity to quickly & bluntly experience the equivalent of drive-thru, hot and ready art.

Do you visualize your Art before creating? Do you know what it will look like before you begin? What's your process?
JLH-I would say that 90% of the time I know what 80% of the finished piece will look like. My basic concept behind book altering is to take a used or discarded hardcover book & transform it into something new, alive & different from the original stream of words. Yet, I still seek to retain a ghost of the original book somewhere in the final piece.

For this series, I decided to focus mainly on wall-hung altered books where the book itself serves at both the artwork & the frame. The inspiration can come from the physical aspects of the book's cover design, color, size or title. At other times, I begin the process with a specific concept I want to express. And then there are the times when an idea springs forth from a particular item or illustration I want to incorporate into the piece.

While individual books get uniquely altered based on the story I want to tell, my main techniques include carving niches & nooks in the books, adding 2-D & 3-D material to help the plot develop & finally sealing the pages shut - never to be opened.

Through this experimental process, the final 20% of each piece develops. Serendipity, necessity, chance & 'Eureka!' moments further polish the piece as it is created.


What are the most important influences that have moved you as an artist?
JLH-Always seeing the innate potential & undiscovered beauty in things: pine straw, mistakes, mud puddles, discarded things, overlooked people, dusty old books which smell of time & story & word craft.

You work is so intricate and very unique. Is there anything you consistently draw inspiration from?
JLH-Actually, I'm hard pressed to find something from which I do NOT draw inspiration! It flies at me and bombards me from every side: the sky, conversations, lyrics, thrift stores, literature, friends, emotions, waffles, bumper stickers... the list goes on & on & on...

How is your work a reflection of you?
JLH-Man - I hope this doesn't end up sounding pompous...lol. It is an outflow of my inner life. It is intelligent. It wants to speak - to say something worth saying. It wants to be heard. It wants to move people to think & to change & to affect change around them. I hope my work reflects my burning passion for passionately living a passionate life.

Do you see any emerging local, national, or global art trends that interest you?
JLH-Honestly, other than Juxtapose and Art:21, I have very little knowledge of what's going on in the larger art realm. What I do see & know firsthand is that there are amazing artists all around me who inspire me, drive me to jealousy & push me to push my craft even harder. I am experiencing the trend in my own art community of dissolving the membranes between different genres: music, visual art, poetry, performance. That excites me! The creatives I am connected with are actually beginning to execute the crazy ideas we've been toying around with during special moments when our randomness brainstorming hits critical mass. I feel that our goal of intentional engagement of the community-at-large with the arts [whether they like it or not!] is being birthed right in front of my eyes.

Do you see anything exciting developing within your community that you feel will have and affect on the local art scene?
JLH-Oops! Seems as though I jumped ahead and hit on this one already... I can say that I have seen an increase in public awareness of 'other' art because of the direct actions of some creative folk... I don't know if a huge number of people have converted, but I definitely know that some eyebrows have been raised, some have found out they are not alone & others have decided to throw stones. At any rate, the artists have started to speak & some - indeed - do have ears to hear.

Your work seems very time consuming. How do you balance your personal life as a working artist?
JLH-First & foremost, I have an amazing partner-in-crime who gives me the space I need to do what I was created to do. My wife, Stacie, grants me the freedom & unalienable right to live life creatively. The rest is up to me. I've been pondering this question of 'balance' with both myself & other artists. What I have found is that if something is important to you - no matter what - you blaze a trail to make it happen. While I could go into specifics of calendars, scheduling, sacrifice & the like, I'd rather respond with a greater answer. My personal life is important to me so I make time for that aspect. My artistic life is important so I make time for that aspect. I put worth on each of these areas and try to marry them whenever I can. I'm not sure if I'm writing a book or just altering one I've already had around for awhile. But when it's all said and done I want it to say something worth saying. If that's not a good enough reason to find that balance, I don't know what is.

Collectors Pick: For you collectors out there, I would highly recommend viewing John's work in his Facebook Account.