An artist and a poet have combined forces to create art from the grief each suffered from the loss of a son in their new book entitled From Luminous Shade. Painter Peggy Kannenstine and Poet Ann McGarrell will share their latest collaboration work and talk about it today (Saturday, November 26th) at 3:00 pm at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock.
Ann McGarrell has translated poems from the Italian Giuseppe Ungaretti’s “Il Dolore” (Sorrow) with Peggy Kannenstine’s paintings depiciting the seasons (and coexistent emotions) in their new book.
McGarrell lost her son in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Kannenstine experienced the death of her son from pancreatic cancer. Somehow the two were able to use the enormity of feeling to create from these losses. They are celebrating their sons, their grief and the resultant work today.
Kannenstine, of Woodstock, VT, is an artist whose work is known for its expressive use of color. She has shown throughout New England, including the Flynn Theater Gallery in Burlington, VT; the Elsa Mott Ives Gallery in NYC; and New Hampshire College in Manchester. Her work is in various collections, including The Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, OH; The Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH; and The Springfield Art Museum in Springfield, MO.
McGarrell, of Newbury, VT, describes her work as “internationally unknown.” She won the PEN/Renato Poggioli prize for best translation from Italian in 1997 and has been awarded writing residencies at the Ligurian Study Center in Bogliasco, Italy; Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi; and the Albers Foundation, Connecticut. The exhibited broadsides of Ungaretti’s poems were printed by Jonathan Greene of Gnomon Press, Lexington, Kentucky
The book is available for sale at Yankee Bookshop and Shiretown Books. It will also be available for sale this afternoon at the library. Peggy is a well-known patron of much in Woodstock (from Woodstock Early Bird’s perspective) and I’m sure she would appreciate having some visitors/friends come by the library for the exhibition/reading.
Julia Carlisle
Woodstock Early Bird 