Sunday, October 13, 2-5pm
Alameda 6, Colonia San Antonio
Free

Landscapes Reimagined: Art & Poetry

By Catherine Marenghi

“Earth is third child of the sun, hovering on the edge of chance
Not so lazy as to leave one
Scorching side turned to the fire.
Nor cold enough to freeze
Nor small enough to lose its
Saving gauze of atmosphere
Nor quite so smooth of crust
As to be forever drowned
Beneath one total ocean.”
—“Cybernaut” by E.G. Valens

The marriage of visual art and poetry is as ancient as The Iliad, when Homer describes in elaborate detail the scenes embossed on the shield of Achilles.

In San Miguel, art and poetry will meet again at the art studio of Kathleen Cammarata, combining an exhibition of her stunning contemporary landscape paintings with poetry readings by Catherine Marenghi and Mary Katherine Wainwright.

The art of landscape painting is 1,115 years old, first seen in China. Today landscape painting has ventured beyond the classic representational depiction of land and sky. Cammarata’s paintings represent this new genre of contemporary landscapes.

Her work is infused with a new understanding of the planet Earth, one that is subject to growth, change, explosion, and rebirth. The paintings are abstract swirling patterns of earth, air, fire, and water. Planets emerge, fossils bury in the forms, red gas bubbles up from under, clouds hover over surfaces, light creates its own source.

Possessed of an abstract beauty, these landscapes invite us to engage with them and widen our view. They remind us of energies we cannot visually perceive. They call on us to see our participation in the unfolding of the universe.

Against a backdrop of these reimagined landscapes, a poetry reading at 3:00 PM will explore our changing relationship with the world’s landscapes, both real and imagined, internal and external, tactile and abstract. The readers are two San Miguel poets:

• Catherine Marenghi, an award-winning poet and memoirist. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals in the U.S. and Mexico. Her forthcoming poetry book Breaking Bread will be published by Finishing Line Press in January 2020. Catherine is also author of Glad Farm: A Memoir, an acclaimed story of poverty and resilience.

• Mary Katherine Wainwright is a former professor of American literature currently living in San Miguel. She is the author of A Taste of Salt: Poems. She currently teaches classes in poetry and literature at the Lifelong Learning Program at Instituto Allende and the San Miguel Writers’ Conference. Her collection of personal essays, En Route, will be published by the end of the year.

Kathleen Cammarata has been a painter for thirty years, the last three in San Miguel. She has had over 25 solo exhibitions, most recently at Bellas Artes. Her work is in numerous collections, both corporate and private. She has taught at two museums and a university in the States. More information is at www.kcammarata.com.

The paintings can be seen at on Sunday, Oct. 13 from 2:00-5:00 PM or by appointment. For an appointment, please email the artist at katcammarata@gmail.com.