Art Question

Ekphrastic Poem assignment

Before writing your poem, you need to research your artist, and locate one article that includes critical and/or biographical information. You will write a (1)summary, and include a correctly formatted MLA citation.

Part 1. https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.25.html :Summarize the bio and create an MLA citation for this article. (250-300 words)

Part 2. Create a Ekphrastic poem based off the drawing below (minimum 300 words)

Here’s and example of a poem :

“Interior”

Everyone has their place

Where they can dream

The woman smoking by the woodstove,

Content with her shawl, her apron, her hands relaxed.

Maybe she is sitting after a long day of work,

Waiting for the kettle to whistle so she can have a cup of tea.

The boy—I am thinking it is you Mr. Pippin—stands by a table

In candlelight, clearly painting.

Or writing or dreaming a world where

This interior does exist

Against a the dark world outside

That allows very little in the way of solace.

This scene takes place not too long before you enlisted in a

segregated Army to make the world safe for democracy

when it wasn’t even safe for you and you

lost the use of your painting arm—

You gained a medal though, the French Croix de Guerre,

The cross of war.

You bore this cross home with you

To a country that treated you like a second class citizen.

But you were an artist and you created your own world.

The little girl sits on a quilt,

holding her baby doll –

she too is intent, dreaming of

her own future.

Even the dog seems happy in this

Interior, the inside, the safe place

The world you painted for yourself.