Last spring, I had a very intriguing conversation with my cousin, photographer and producer Michele Morris.  She was looking to put together a book of her photography and wanted to give it some extra spice–preferably with poetry.  Out of that conversation grew a number of ideas, several of which coalesced into our collaborative project, Palettes of Light.  (You may have seen me talking about this project elsewhere, if so, sorry for the repetition!  I’m working on this multi-platform social media balancing act.)

This project pairs Michele’s photos from two very different photography series based on colors, moods, and motion, and then incorporates my poetry as a way to tie the two together and provide a different way of looking at them individually.  So far, one of our triptychs has been part of the Venice Arts 21st Anniversary gala show, and we’re working hard on finalizing the book’s layout.

I also got to play a little ‘show and tell’ about Palettes of Light at the New England Museum Association’s ‘Pop-Up Museum’ event last night.  I’ll be posting about the Pop-Up Museum experience as a museum/education thing over on Brain Popcorn, but I wanted to get to do the author/poet geeking out here.

It was a real pleasure to get to see all the creative means of expression people brought with them: everything from a collection of Bond novels to Settlers of Cataan, from knitted handwarmers to a fully authentic 18th century dress and undergarments, from photography to painting to a playlist of radio and exhibition voiceovers. In such an eclectic mix, a pairing of photography and poetry fit right in, and it was fun to toast to the submission process with a painter, to talk haiku cycles with an interactive media designer, and to discuss dramatic diction with a science museum staffer. And, of course, to share Palettes of Light with people, which was really gratifying.

Here are a few photos from the event: