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Latest Artist's Video:
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Artist Statement:
Stephen Mead is a published
artist/writer living in
northeastern NY. As an artist
he is self-taught, yet has
been heavily influenced by
both surrealism and
expressionism. In the early
1990's he was published in
several little literary
magazines, but stopped to
pursue visual work. It was in
...
Further Information
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Artist Exhibitions:
The Social Justice Center,
Albany, 1987
Russell Sage 'Flower' Show,
Troy, 1988
Gay & Lesbian Community
Center, Albany, 1990
Cynthia Van Horne Ehrlich
Gallery, Provincetown, M.A.,
1992-95
The Romaine Brooks Gallery,
1998
Spencertown Academy of Art,
1998
Mother Earth's Cafe, 1999
Art on Lark, 1999
Morningside Gallery, Golden
...
Further Information
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Artist Galleries:
March ’06, work accepted for
www.promiseland-productions.com
April '06, work published by
RIRoads Magazine,
riroads.com/members/200512.htm
April '06, work accepted for
the SMR
April '06, work accepted for
Big Pond Rumours
April '06, work accepted for
Yen Relish
May '06, work accepted by The
Knoxville ...
Further Information
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Collections:
Coming Soon!
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Commissions:
Coming Soon!
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Reviews for Stephen Mead:
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From http://newgreatbooks.blogspot.com/
Art and Poetry Combined: Book Offers Moving Example
By Peter N. Jones. Ph.D
Director and Editor: Bauu Institute and Press
(http://www.bauuinstitute.com)
Selected Works: The Poetry and Art of Stephen Mead
The other day I reviewed a powerful poetry book by Jerry Fagnani, noting how poetry can still have a profound impact in today's world. Well, that got me to thinking, what are some other powerful mediums. Visual imagery is one, ranging from painting to photography, from video to film. Coupled with poetry or other narratives, visual images have the power to evoke certain tones or qualities that are then perceived by the reader.
I wanted to find a book that would did this - used imagery with words to create an overall feeling in the reader. Going down my stack of "to read" books, I pulled out "Selected Works" by Stephen Mead. This was just what I wanted. Stephen is an artist and writer living in New York. Working in a variety of visual mediums, including pencil, black and white, acrylic, and oil, Mead incorporates a wide body of original art work along side his poetry. The overall presentation and reader experience is wonderful.
Included in "Selected Works" are the award winning "Heroines Unlikely," "Body as Landscape" and my favorite "Drag." The latter is a series of poems and black and white portraits all centered around the cigarette. Similar to the classic images of Rita Hayworth in Gilda, the portraits in "Drag" utilize the smoke of the cigarette to evoke an image in the readers mind. Coupled with the stirring poetry, "Drag" and other collections in "Selected Works" offer the reader a unique opportunity to see what the author might have been visualizing when he wrote the piece.
I'm glad I pulled this book off my "to read" pile and delved in. The visual imagery coupled with the idiosyncratic prose was completely rewarding. It is these kinds of books that make you constantly hunt for the next great reading adventure.
From The Poetry Market E-Zine, Review By LB Sedlacek
POETRY REVIEW
"Selected Works"
The Poetry and Art of Stephen Mead
by Stephen Mead
119 pages
ISBN: 978-0-6151-4160- 2
Publisher: StephenMeadArt
Print: $22.38
Download: $7.95
http://www.lulu. com/stephenmead
http://www.absolute arts.com/ portfolios/ s/stephenmead/
Review By LB Sedlacek
"Selected Works" is a book of six poems and art
expertly synced together by Stephen Mead. A
writer and artist, Mead is able to use his art
to express his words and vice versa.
"Washing the Body" is a purely organic
experience with obvious religious overtones --
powerful yet subtle. "Drag" seems to be
an overt homage to cigarette smoking;
however this piece invokes celebrity
assistance with references to and drawings
of Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, etc.
From "Drag" <13:
"Rain on the tongue, / Such bovine innocence, /
Such sweetness, girl, / Your delectable skin /
Edible as buttermilk bread. / Was Norma Jean
slaughtered / In you like a lamb / For the
Hollywood homes, / Each a fled orphanage? /
Dead or alive / Your glamourous myth lives /
with new rumours yet ...."
"Heroines Unlikely" appears to be an
honorary piece to women ranging from a
girl's innocence to the protection of a
mother and to adulthood. It even touches
on the mythological with an ode to a muse.
"From The Sea of Myths" carries the
mythological even further.
From "From The Sea of Myths" No. 28:
"Thus Eurydice caught by Pluto /
Tried to teach Orpheus / But Orpheus
looked back, / Taught, as we all are, /
To project, to reflect / And give such
feelings to the lyre ...."
The illustrations that accompany each
poem help facilitate the poem's
movement and voice. Some of the
images are hauntingly moving -- each
one a powerful addition to the
accompanying words.
Overall this is a moving work -- a
multifaceted glimpse at the
illustrated word.
E-book Review, by Janet Muirhead Hill, AloneTogether Magazine
"We Are More Than Our Wounds" is not only a profound truism, but also the title of a new e-book by Stephen Mead.
For those of you who remember, or who save your back issues of AT (Volume 7, Issue 1 .January/ February, 2003), you will recognize the provocative style of art and poetry that makes you take time to ponder it's deeper meaning. "It is a small piece with poetry accompanying each image (one per page) to weave one long poem, the entirety a meditation on and prayer for, both internal and world peace." Stephen told me.
I wouldn't have gleaned that message at first glance, but with thoughtful study, employing the imagination, which is what Stephen's art demands, that concept becomes clear, or perhaps, depending on your perspective, you'll have a different interpretation.
For just $9.99, you can have a downloadable copy of your own. Below is all the information or, to order, go to: http://www.newagedimensionspublishing.com/wearemorethanourwounds.htm There you will find this information next to an image of an eye-catching cover that you will want to study deeply.
4 ANGELS - "This was a fascinating and intriguing change of pace. I have to admit, I did not know what to expect when I picked this creative project. Mr. Mead presents the reader with a gloriously colorful visualization of his poetry. Powerful and moving, he takes the reader through an emotional journey of inner spirit and transformation. Though not my normal fare, I greatly enjoyed this and if you are into poetry and interpretive art – a thumbs up from Izzy!"
~Izzy, FallenAngelReviews.com
We Are More Than Our Wounds is a work of poetry inseparably intermeshed with art. The artwork itself is of note. These colourful stylized images of the body and parts within the body, particularly those of the heart, are thought provoking containing as much emotion and vulnerability as the actual text. The text itself makes use of historical, religious, and contemporary culture and ties together these references with image provoking analogy. Put together, this work is both powerful and inspirational at the same time.
In 2004, We Are More Than Our Wounds won second place honours in the Preditors and Editor Readers Poll for both artwork and poetry. I think that this high standing in both categories is quite apt as the artwork and the poetry feed the energy of each other to create a very visual image in the minds and in the emotions of the reader. ~ Tami Brady, TMC Reviews
www.allbooksreviews.com www.allbooksreviews.ca
Genre: Poetry/art
Title: We Are More Than Our Wounds
AUTHOR: Stephen Mead
The plight of the human condition is a familiar and popular topic for poetry, but the subject is given a fresh approach and emphasis when there are visual accents.
“We Are More Than Our Wounds” is an e-book created from a single poem with appropriate images accompanying it. The poem dissects the human condition, following the analogy of the human body, and the pictures vividly portray the author’s words. The poem ends on a positive but not overly idealistic note.
The poem is cleverly crafted, free of restrictive rhyme and with a strong passion and inherent empathy. Stephen Mead shows that he is not only a gifted poet, but a unique and natural artist, with images whose quality are unfortunately dampened by the e-book medium: they would be even more effective and appreciated if printed on quality paper. Regardless, the visual and the literal combine well to present the authors compassion and insight.
Stephen Mead lives and works in Northeastern New York, and is a published author and artist, having once been presented with first prize by the Gutenberg Lithographic Society.
For poetry fans, this is a lovely little e-book, with the added benefit of interesting and enjoyable visuals. Definitely recommended.
Reviewer: Nancy Morris, Allbooks Reviews.
We Are More than Our Wounds by Stephen Mead
07-18-2004 -- Poetry
We Are More Than Our Wounds by Stephen Mead
Publisher: New Age Dimensions, Inc.
http://www.NewAgeDimensionsPublishing.com/
Genre: Poetry/Art
Mead's many talents come through in his collection of verse and imagery, a soothing and healing read that touches the eye and engages the mind in a unique, magnificant way.
http://www.halfdrunkmuse.com/current/reviews.php:
The "sister arts" of painting and poetry are reinvestigated in Stephen Mead’s new e-book, We Are More than Our Wounds. Fourteen paintings paired with a single poem lead the reader through what is above all else a philosophical examination of wounds, struggles, and healings. The poem is generally abstract, pointing to sketched-out ideas like "the known landscapes of hurt" and "the motion of generations"; readers looking for concrete imagery or clear depictions of events will find the language in the poems frustrating and incomplete. There are times when the language itself seems to fall short of what it wants to say, skipping over words or beginning a phrase again: "two shapes / may weave / a sound shawl from / through legacies."
The words, however, are only half the book, and many of the gaps and pauses in the poem are answered by the paintings with which it’s paired. Although the paintings share a stylistic similarity—images of hearts and hands repeat, deeps reds are woven with blues and occasionally bright yellows, the edges of lines are softened—the overall impression is more than just "variations on a theme." The images pull from diverse mythologies and cultural groups to suggest a world more encompassing than a single moment. It is this expanse, perhaps, which leads to the abstraction in the language.
The pairing of image and poem work together to create something more than would appear otherwise. The image of a man clutching at blood-stained bandages appears beside an injunction to "Pet and pat it, blessing up, / smiling down / on the bandages which swaddle / what very nearly burst / now grafted back, stitched for the road." In the painting we have the image the words only sketch out: a concrete face and pose to uphold the poem. The images are undoubtedly the strongest aspect of the book; they are both vivid and compelling, and each tells a story in its own right.
However, it is the poem which ultimately sketches out Mead's philosophy for the reader. The thoughts flow in a stream-of-consciousness style, weaving in and out of images as they seem to occur to the narrator. Thus the suggestion that everyone has flaws is answered with "Yes, I feel the geyser of that"—the theme of nature breaking through cracks, introduced in the previous thought, is picked up in the next with more forcefulness, and the reader is pulled onward into the book. Moments of affirmation are answered by calls to "take this trowel. / Excavate right here": one discovery is never enough, and the book continues to circle around, looking for meaning in both wounds and recovery.
Ultimately, Wounds reads best when time is taken to allow the interplay between words and images to fill the spaces and build a narrative. It will attract readers looking for philosophical meditation more than it will readers looking for clear and focused guidance. Mead’s invitation near the end of the book, "Come on. Come, you can," is also a challenge: it's only by taking the time to step into the silence between poem and paintings that the book will really open up to readers and demonstrate the ways in which we are more than our wounds.
More information on Stephen's book, including how to order, is available through the publisher's website: http://newagedimensionspublishing.com.
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