About the visual poems
These visual poems reimagine fragments from four my older poems. As a painter, I’ve been described as a neo-expressionist. I’m interested in surface textures and expressive brushwork. Sometimes my abstract paintings mimic surfaces in the natural world. Adding fragments of poetry is a new development. Perhaps the greatest challenge in creating these pieces is integrating words into multilayered pieces of art. The words have to become part of the piece yet still be readable. My hope is that the viewer can experience all these things at once, and also in layers, as one experiences a poem or a painting on its own. These mixed-media pieces on canvas paper include acrylic and watercolor paint; various types of paper, including my own intaglio prints; and natural materials. The pieces are numbered because I like to experiment and create multiple versions of each visual poem.
About Alyssa Chase
Alyssa was born in New Orleans, raised in Kansas City and has lived in Kansas, Missouri, New York, Indiana and Europe. She earned her MFA in poetry from Butler University and also holds a bachelor’s degree in studio art from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her poetry has been published in The Indianapolis Review and The Greensboro Review, among others, and her journalistic work is frequently published in Kit magazine. Alyssa runs her own freelance writing and editing business. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband, Rob Rebein, a pair of beagles and two adult children who come and go.