Artist Statement:

I think the best works of art always tell a story. An abstract painting may reflect the inner landscape of someone’s imagination just as much as a well-written poem. I have always loved stories. In fact, I have discovered that they are the center of my life. From my acting to my writing, to my painting and beyond, I am always creating the tales I long to inhabit. But more than that, good myths remind us about the nature of life that we knew as children but have forgotten as we grew.

The beauty of a story was best captured by G. K. Chesterton who said, “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” Fairy tales give us strength and teach us what we need most to know in ways simple fact cannot.

The world of my imagination contains an uncountable amount of dimensions. There are pirates and fairies, knights and spacemen, and characters I have yet to conceive. I want my work to be a pouring of those worlds onto whatever medium happens to be at my disposal.

Apollo

Jenny Jackowski

 

Trees sway to songs sitting in the air
Filling the clouds
Falling softly

 

A camera's flash captures the scene
In a box that's glossy
And framed in white
Slightly faded
And color saturated

 

Behind the instrument stands a man
Much like the tree in frame
Thin and plain but
A face like Apollo
And the talent to match

 

Before his feet lay a book with feathers
Sticking out
Leaves next to it
Scribbles in and out
The history of a man

 

He kneels to find the wanted angle
Dead leaves brush
His feet and hands
A touch of warning
Their homes still mourning

 

A specter of autumnal grace
Gone in and out
This place is sacred
Its shadows dancing
The mid-light humming
A marble statue with blue eyes

 

Another snap and the scene is stilled
Waiting to be posted
And played
From a computer's page
Strummed and hung

 

Singing softly as he falls to the ground
Breath slipping out
Carrying words
Sung to someone not there
He doesn't see it

 

Run from the woods beautiful Apollo
Paint your heart
Chase the art
Of more than patience
One waits
Two wait

 

Days and time are lost to thought
He is the maze
An honest haze
So open and so confusing
Each turn the right
But never the way out

 

He sits strumming in a lonely room
No lights just fights
Pouring over from deep
Inside and twisting
Something is missing

 

Heh
It is known
He is known

 

Sing for me Apollo
Hold on to me Apollo
Every color a new world
Every word a lost city
Recovered

 

He unlocks the doors that lead
To the lights
Bouncing in the box
That captures
And answers

 

The forest clears like brushed away drops
They smear
Leaving their mark
A title surely
For hanging tableaus

 

His named signed in the lower right
Apollo's art confirmed
And left
To be gazed
And smile

 

Nothing will compare

Euphemism Campus Box 4240 Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4240