LOCK HAVEN — The Clinton County Arts Council is pleased to announce, as the first show of its new season, a collaborative exhibit by poet Marjorie Maddox and photographer Karen Elias in celebration of their new book, “Small Earthly Space,” just published by Shanti Arts Press.
The exhibit, which will include a generous selection of paired poems and images, will showcase the collaborative process that Maddox and Elias have developed over the past several years. After they were first paired together three years ago in an experimental effort by the CCAC to encourage collaboration between artists and writers, the two have gone on to publish their work in numerous literary journals and have produced two additional books, “Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For” (Shanti Arts Press) and the lighthearted “How Can I Look It Up When I Don’t Know How It’s Spelled? Spelling Mnemonics and Grammar Tricks” (Kelsay Books). Selections from the latter will also be included in the exhibit.
In “Small Earthly Space,” poet Maddox and photographer Elias explore their connection with and responsibility to the imaginative and geographical locations we call home.
Inspired by the curlew that appears in Ali Smith’s lyrical novel, “Companion Piece,” Maddox and Elias envision a journey that asks us to grow humble enough to pass through the smallest of doors, to confront both regret and ecological devastation, to experience “the long, slow burn of loss.”
But the journey is not without hope. As the poet asks: “What if IF still exists?” What might happen if we “delete the expected ending” and “claim… the urgent adverb of now”?
PHOTO PROVIDED
Poet Marjorie Maddox, left, and photographer Karen Elias, right are pictured at a State College exhibit. The pair will mark the state of the Clinton County Arts Council’s 2025 exhibit season with the debut of their newest collaboration.
The last sections of the book take us to those small, earthly spaces that we now visit with fresh eyes, watching as the mists rise over the hills, as the poppy — both symbol and brilliant-petaled flower — reveals the “intoxication of possibility.”
K. A. Hays, author of “Anthropocene Lullaby,” says of the book: “Marjorie Maddox and Karen Elias’s sonically and visually compelling work in “Small Earthly Space” showcases how attention to the specificities of place, amidst “the long, slow burn of loss” of climate and species, instills wonder focus — even hope. Although “we can’t go back,” this book urges presence in the here, the now, that creates a call to action.”
Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing at the Lock Haven campus of Commonwealth University, Marjorie Maddox has published 16 collections of poetry — including “Begin with a Question” (International Book Award winner and Illumination Book Award winner) and the Shanti Arts ekphrastic collaborations “Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For” (with photographer Karen Elias) and “In the Museum of My Daughter’s Mind” (2023 Dragonfly Book Award), featuring work with her artist daughter, Anna Lee Hafer (www.hafer.work). In addition, Maddox has published four children’s and YA books. With Jerry Wemple, she is co-editor of “Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania” and “Keystone Poetry: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania” (PSU Press) and is assistant editor of Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry. She hosts the radio show Poetry Moment at WPSUFM.www.marjoriemaddox.com.
After teaching college English for 40 years, Dr. Karen Elias is now an artist/activist, using photography to record the beauty and fragility of the natural world and to raise awareness about climate change. Her work is in private collections, has been exhibited in several galleries, and has won numerous awards. She is a member of the Clinton County PA Arts Council. In addition to “Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For,” collaborations with Maddox have appeared in literary, arts, and medical humanities journals. Elias, also a playwright, has had work chosen by the Climate Change Theatre Action and staged in eight countries.
The exhibit will be up at the Station Gallery for a month, starting with an opening reception on Friday, Feb. 7, from 6 to 8 p.m. A poetry reading and Q and A session with the authors will begin at 6:45 p.m.
The event is free, and members of the public are invited to come in out of the cold to browse the art, have refreshments, listen to the poetry, and talk with the authors.
