janet st. john

Photograph by Kim Manley-Ort Cradle of Life Clara found the hollow place while walking. At the north edge of her family’s eastern Nebraska dairy farm, she saw a fallen tree. She shouldn’t have been there. She was afraid of the neighbor’s growling, jaw-snapping, black and white sheep dog because it knew exactly the boundaries of its master’s property. But the dog was absent. The partially decayed tree trunk, brown-grey as driftwood, bark-bare and splitting, beckoned her. She f

Pandora There is a woman and a box. She is curious. It is closed. Is it a gift? An honor? A secret? She recognizes temptation when she sees it. Sky, pastel mirage. Ground, confetti color. Only her dress, statuesque form, Grecian face and hair are representational of what we might call real. But she is flat. Fresco on a wall. Poster in a spa. Only sloped neck, focused gaze, and the way she cradles the box in her arm reveal character. The box itself the jewel, whether a jewel i

https://history.denverlibrary.org/denver-building-history-tutorial Break It Down Again Nothing was wrong with the house, but he wanted to fix it. He worked weekends and evenings—demolishing, framing, patching, and painting. The more he attacked, the more the house became a mishmash. New and old. Wood and plastic. Modern and historically accurate. That’s how she saw it. His wife sighed every time his black pickup truck pulled into the driveway, loaded with lumber, pvc pipe, an

I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold. Charles Demuth (American, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 1883–1935 Lancaster, Pennsylvania). 1928. Oil, graphite, ink, and gold leaf on paperboard (Upson board) 35 1/2 x 30 in. (90.2 x 76.2 cm). Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1949. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 902. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art open access. Figure 5 As the multi-colored twinkle of tree lights receded and hazy winter sun warmed day to spring I saw the figure 5 on a

Emil Orlik (German, 1870 – 1932) Oasis in the Desert. c.1913 Drypoint and roulette printed in light brown on laid cream paper 11.7 × 19.8 cm (4 5/8 × 7 13/16 in.) sheet: 19.9 × 28 cm (7 13/16 × 11 in.). Courtesty of the National Gallery of Art open access Oasis We have come to a place in the desert where water is life, to replenish spirit. Here, things are calm yet glinting—sunlight off mirror, off silver knife edge. Sand is sculpted into dunes and divots. Sky blue. Everythin

Carlos Anderson (American, born 1905). Published by WPA. 1935–43. Lithograph. 11 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. (29.2 x 39.4 cm) sheet: 14 1/2 x 18 1/2 in. (36.8 x 47 cm). Gift of the Work Projects Administration, New York, 1943. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art open access. Another Kind of Christmas Four days before Christmas, Teddy pumps his little legs as fast as he can to keep up with his mother. She said they must hurry to catch the train for Philadelphia. She tugs him along

Lion Sleeping. Antoine-Louis Barye (French, Paris 1796–1875 Paris). 1810–75. Watercolor on wove paper, lined sheet: 9 3/16 x 11 5/8 in. (23.3 x 29.5cm). Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art open access. Animal Time Present in the presence of self, here-now. Breathe in, out. Supine rest. Head on paws Dirt bed. Desert vista. Wind prickles fur. A warm spot, here and here. Sun pokes through clouds like stick through foliage-dense forest. Stop. Listen. Change here happens im

Pixabay.com. Public Domain Image. Waiting for Rain White vapor, turns grey, builds over the mountains. Invisible hand stirs the atmospheric pot. Air, water particles swirl. Everything coagulates, coming together toward one desire. Rain. The land so parched, years of thirst in the air for more living, more moisture in the soil, more greenery, more sprouting, more food from seeds, berries, flowers. More rabbits to feed raucous parties of coyotes. More bears from quiet mountain

The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda). Luis Meléndez (Spanish, Naples 1716–1780 Madrid). ca. 1772. Oil on canvas. 41 1/2 x 60 1/2 in. (105.4 x 153.7 cm). Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art open access. Seed No more than the one in the web, that world inside the autumn squash, senses the world outside firm flesh, thick-slick skin, tangled green umbilical cord, soil from which it feeds, grows, sun from which it draws, swells, air it dwells in, water-life from bulging clouds. Do

Winter Scene in Moonlight. Henry Farrer (American, London 1844–1903 New York). 1869 Watercolor and gouache on white wove paper. 11 7/8 x 15 3/16 in. (30.2 x 38.6 cm). Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art open access. Grateful It’s risky meeting on a full moon winter night, Max thinks. Frigid. Half past one. The man he waits for is almost fifteen minutes late. But Max is sure he’ll show up. He has to, if he wants his money. He did a job. He deserves it. Max wonders if th

Utagawa Hiroshige.(1797–1858 Tokyo) Edo period (1615–1868) ca. 1833–34. Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper. 9 15/32 x 14 in. (24.1 x 35.6 cm). Rogers Fund, 1918. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Open Access). Sudden Showers It is an uphill climb, the kind that doesn’t seem so daunting until you undertake it. Wind is not at their backs, though the rain slants that way. Backs angled like trees in storm, like bamboo stalks, everything that bends. The d

Burned Tree, Western Oregon. Ansel Easton Adams (1902–1984). 1960. Black and white instant print. 11.1 x 8.7 cm. Rights and Reproduction: © Photograph by Ansel Adams. Used with permission of the Trustees of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy National Gallery Open Access. It stood like a cross, corpse, shell of something. A sign of what had blazed by, searing the thin-skinned and vulnerable. Scorch marks, my scars. Bare brittle limbs, my arm

Sidewalk. Janet St. John. 2017 I didn’t know what the cracks represented, nor the lines diagonally dividing this space from that, one step from another. Leaves had fallen, been blown, trodden, cracked, flaked, crushed to the scent of burnt toast and the better side of decay. Some light accidently reflected in my lens. My eyes. My phone. My way of seeing the world. The black and white of it. The gray. Always so much gray. That place to inhabit. The sun shone, filigree through

Tree. Arthur Dove (American, Canandaigua, New York 1880–1946 Huntington, New York) 1935. Watercolor, tempera, and ink on paper. 5 x 7 in. (12.7 x 17.8 cm). Alfred Stieglitz Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art open access. Growing Blue There is the growing up and the growing down. Trees do. We do. There is also a growing out and growing in. A tree is nourished by, and holds, unseen forces. Taken in. Drawn upward. Feeding, storing, restoring. Its foliage unfurls from spring

Design for poster and cover of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Édouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris). Written by Edgar Allan Poe (American, Boston, MA 1809–1849 Baltimore, MD). Translated by Stéphane Mallarmé (French, 1842–1898). 1875. Transfer lithograph on simili-parchment. 12 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. King of Candor The raven is wounded by the story that dismisses his story with us. Perched on a branch above in focused stillness. Ho

To read/re-read Part 1 click here! Museum Piece (Part 2) While waiting with Jules during a chemo treatment once, she had asked Lana what she wanted to do once the girls were off to college. Lana said, “Maybe take some classes.” “Like a cooking in France or Italy?” Jules asked. Lana was thinking maybe a small business course at the community college. She was intrigued by having an idea, outlining a business plan, finding investors. “How does someone find people willing to shel

This Art & Soul Short is being presented in two installments. Please check back on September 15th for Part 2! Museum Piece (Part 1) The sash was an extravagance. Blood red and gold-coin silk, finely woven by hand, with trailing tassels like the train on a princess’s wedding gown, or like the long hennaed locks of a bride to be. Lana didn’t understand why a widow would purchase a wedding sash or place it in a corner of her bedroom, dangling from a thin bamboo hanger. Aunt Jul

This image shows the Aug. 1, 2008, solar eclipse at the point of totality, when the moon completely blocks out the body of the sun, revealing the normally hidden, halo-like corona. Image Credit: The Exploratorium.NASA.https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/eclipse/aug1attotality.html Eclipse Dark the day unfolding. This moment in time. These hours on record. Dark again. Blocking whatever brightness we once brought to the world. Dark the stain of our past, how we fou

Lynda Miller. Morning Glories. Colored pencil & ink on paper. 8-7/8" x 5-1/2" http://www.neonrose.net Morning Glories They reminded her of France, of the house with a trellised arch at the gate, where pale blue flowers awoke on vines, opening to morning, to sun just rising over fields. It was 1943 when she left. Nothing should have stayed alive there. The world had gone dark and dead. Bled out color. But the flowers lived. Thrived in chalky soil at the house that had been ten

William Freer. “Outside the Window.” Original, powder coated steel, 48” x 24” atop an 18” boulder. In paper, eight layers of Arches #140 Cold Press archival paper, hand-cut, plus archival museum board; wood frame has museum glass to prevent glare. 35” H x 28” W 1-1/2” deep. For more information visit Bill's website. His steel sculpture is currently represented in Santa Fe, NM by Bill Hester Fine Art, and in Scottsdale, AZ by Xanadu Gallery. Outside In This morning a window is