Making Connections: Water & Life In A Desert City – An Exhibition Where Visual Art Meets Poetry

I went to see the opening reception for Making Connections: Water & Life In A Desert City – An Exhibition Where Visual Art Meets Poetry at the Shemer Art Center.

Kevin Vaughan-Brubaker did a fantastic job curating this exhibit. Over the years, he's worked as a project manager for Public Art programs in Phoenix and Scottsdale, but he also has plenty of personal experience in the poetry and art scenes. So he knows pretty much everyone involved in those kinds of dark arts and he put his expertise to use, pairing up poets with a piece of visual art for the show.

It was exciting to finally see who else was involved in this project. Names like Sally Ball, Charles Jensen, newly appointed inaugural Poet Laureate of Arizona Alberto Rios, and my longtime co-host Jack Evans just to name a few.

Here is a peek at the multimedia piece that I got paired up with, from artist Sue Norton-Scott:

 

 I loved that piece and that was one of the coolest things about this show. If I stumbled onto this exhibit, that is the piece that would have captured my attention. It was easy to write up a companion poem.

But it wasn't just me. Most of the poets felt the same way about their match-ups. Vaughan-Brubaker knew enough about each of us so that his instincts led to some uncanny pairings. He is great at what he does and the only one in town, who could have pulled this off.

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