Mary Catherine Harper

Memoir Map 17

“Memoir Map 17” is a multi-layered piece with a background of large dull green leaves that is partially hidden by three more layers, each of which is semi-transparent. The top layer covers the bottom right quadrant with a shimmer of gold and dusty purple wavy lines. The next layer contains photos of an aging mother in the center of the piece with a partially-hidden boy’s face repeated in the top left quadrant. The layer just beneath the faces and above the background is a repeated pattern of small eco-printed sepia, umber, and amber leaves. In the bottom right corner, just under the golden and purple waves is the senryū text: When the table’s bare, / let us pass around stories. / Souls can still be fed.

Mary Catherine Harper, Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award recipient and 2019 Poet in Residence at Cape Cod Fine Arts Work Center (see marycatherineharper.org), has two published collections and numerous poems in journals. As an artist, she has presented her hybrid art/poetry works at the Nelson Gallery in Lansing, MI.