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Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson

Chris Stephenson

(detail) BODHISATTVA EXQUISITE JELLY ENGINES - CHRIS STEPHENSON

… [Read more...]

Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale

Rhienna Renee Guedry

What we are attracted to can sometimes intimidate or unsettle us. In the case of art and writing, the work we find powerful demands our attention, sometimes even a second encounter. Poets may shock us … [Read more...]

Mining the Ruins: Andrea Burgay

Andrea Burgay

Eastern Seaboard (detail) - Andrea Burgay

My work elevates the overlooked and the mundane through a process of cutting, reconfiguring and unifying a variety of handmade, found and discarded materials. Using paper ephemera whose original … [Read more...]

Behind the Scene: visual poetry by hiromi suzuki

hiromi suzuki

Behind the Scene 6 by hiromi suzuki

We can see the lights in the distance. Through the thin papers coated with Linseed oil. The Lumière brothers said, "The cinema is an invention without any future". The cine projector continues to … [Read more...]

Four Paintings and a Poem by Stephen Lee Naish

Stephen Lee Naish

mixed media art (detail) by Stephen Lee Naish

Untitled a Coke machine a smile a casual "hi" a walk barefoot in cut grass a door a gas station a pencil a paperclip a desire to be anything you want a bed a … [Read more...]

On Henry James: Four Erasure Poems by Andre Bagoo

Andre Bagoo

On Henry James erasure poem by Andre Bagoo

… [Read more...]

Minimizing Monetization Earth: Agnes Denes’ Art

John K Grande

Agnes Denes Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule (detail)- 11,000 Trees, 11,000 People, 400 Years (Triptych) 1992-1996, 1992/2013 Type-C print 36 x 36 inches Copyright Agnes Denes, courtesy Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York

Is there truly any art that can surpass the beauty and majestic power of nature itself? Wasn’t it Neil Young who said “Nature is a monument to be preserved,” or words to that effect? The earth is … [Read more...]

In Goya’s Dark Room

Nazli Karabiyikoglu

GOYA - El aquelarre (Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid, 1797-98)

I wish we could stand behind the man who is painting over the old paintings, whose clothes are covered with ochre, in his atelier where many candles are lit. Though he doesn’t like being watched, if … [Read more...]

Two collages with found poetry, by Alessandra Bava

Alessandra Bava

hummingbird wings bloom in your eye sockets and every petal cradles your bones (a found poem from Lorca's Dream by former SF Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía)

In the past few days, as I am experiencing a whole new life in quarantine, a friend asked me to join a collage group on FB. I had stopped making collages when I was in primary school. I am enjoying … [Read more...]

Kombinations: Four collages by Kon Markogiannis

Kon Markogiannis

Kombination 3 (detail) by Kon Markogiannis

Collages on old book covers influenced by dadaism, constructivism and surrealism. … [Read more...]

To Ride a Horse: The Art of Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Perceptions of Nature in an Age of Decline

Andrew J. Corsa

Nastja Säde Rönkkö, Take Me Anywhere, 2016 2 channel HD video, duration 10 min, video/edit Luke Turner

Think of seeing a horse. How often do we see a horse as something we can ride, and can we learn to look at horses without ever thinking about how humans can use them? When we see mountains, how often … [Read more...]

Nine Mixed Media Collages by Kelly Schaub

Kelly Schaub

circular reference (detail) - mixed media collage by Kelly Schaub

… [Read more...]

Visual poetry by Kon Markogiannis

Kon Markogiannis

Magick 18 (detail) Visual poetry by Kon Markogiannis

Experimental work combining scrap papers, collage, photography, found text, and fragments of poetry. … [Read more...]

Screaming To Escape From All Limitations: An Interview with John Digby

John Digby and Bill Wolak

collage artist and poet John Digby

John Digby was born in London in 1938. He began writing Surrealist poetry from the early 1970s. He was influenced by Breton, Eluard, Arp, and Desnos. Although he was living in England, the first … [Read more...]

In Our Veins: Paintings by Amy Guidry

Amy Guidry

Regenerate (detail) painting by Amy Guidry

The premise of my series “In Our Veins” is to explore the connections between all life forms and the cycle of life. Through a psychological, and sometimes visceral, approach, this series investigates … [Read more...]

Mutinous Jester: The Collage Novels of Akbar Del Piombo

Gregory Stephenson

Is That You Simon? Akbar Del Piombo

Akbar del Piombo — illustrious subterranean luminary, mysterious, pseudonymous author of six darkly comic, wildly satirical collage novels. Akbar del Piombo — preposterous, portentous name, once … [Read more...]

Thought Notes From My Open Side: Mixed-Media Work by Michelle Firment Reid

Michelle Firment Reid

Ahh You Ahh Freedom Bliss (detail) - Michelle Firment Reid

A multidisciplinary artist, I choose the medium I feel best conveys my concept and intent. I express my emotions as a visual narrative open to interpretation; not at all fixed, but with the desire to … [Read more...]

Blanc Casse: visual poetry by hiromi suzuki

hiromi suzuki

Blanc Casse 7 (detail)

“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) It is a memorable line in The Great … [Read more...]

Everything is Zero Calorie: Watercolors by Yen Yen

Yen Yen

Yen Yen - Rainbow Stacks (detail) watercolor

My work is an imaginary world that starts from my obsession with food, especially sweets. Growing up in Taiwan, I remember going to supermarkets and bakeries with my parents and longing for all the … [Read more...]

geographies by Mark Young

Mark Young

geographies )detail) - Rangemore - Mark Young

The visual geographies are manipulated art works, sometimes derived from the actual place named, sometimes not. They're aligned with the text poetry produced under the same umbrella title, but … [Read more...]

Ten Xerox transfers by Natalie Bradford

Natalie Bradford

Natalie Bradford - xerox transfer

I explore the ideas of memory, absence, mortality, and the passage of time in my prints. Our memories are naturally inconsistent and fleeting; It’s impossible to remember everything in our lives … [Read more...]

Eight found-word collage poems by J.I. Kleinberg

J. I. Kleinberg

alphabets (detail) - ji kleinberg

These visual poems are from an ongoing series of collages (1900+) built from phrases created unintentionally through the accident of magazine page design. Each contiguous fragment of text (roughly the … [Read more...]

Silvery Twines, Embracing: Eight Paintings by Cristina Querrer

Cristina Querrer

Sleeping on Earth's Bed (detail) - Cristina Querrer

My work explores the relationship between modern discourse and otherworldly spaces. With influences as diverse as Helen Frankenthaler and Frida Kahlo, new variations are crafted from both mundane and … [Read more...]

Six collages by Cherie Hunter Day

Cherie Hunter Day

The Eyes Have It (detail)- collage by Cherie Hunter Day

There’s something compelling about reframing the message from discarded scraps to make a new piece. The text, which initially was the primary focus, becomes secondary to texture, color, and line. For … [Read more...]

Seven Abstract Comics by Dev Murphy

Dev Murphy

more trusting - Dev Murphy

… [Read more...]

Six paintings by Judith Skillman

Judith Skillman

Ice Bone (detail) - Judith Skillman painting

… [Read more...]

Monster: visual poems by James Knight

James Knight

Veiny Cathedral Transaction (detail) - visual poetry by James Knight

Monster is a sequence of visual poems, in which I interrogate notions of the monstrous, mixing gothic tropes with cut-up text from Karl Marx, Bram Stoker, Georges Bataille, Jean Baudrillard, Slipknot, … [Read more...]

Twelve artworks by Darrell Urban Black

Darrell Urban Black

Formulation of Human (detail)- Darrell Urban Black

Born March 25, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York, I am Darrell Urban Black, an American visual artist presently living in Frankfurt, Germany. I work in a variety of formats that include pen and ink drawings, … [Read more...]

Grafik: six collages by Kon Markogiannis

Kon Markogiannis

Grafik 16 (detail) - Kon Markogiannis

Grafik is a series of collages which deal with themes such as mortality, fragility, impermanence, the human condition, the exploration of the body and psyche, the evolution of man, consciousness and … [Read more...]

Pre Word: ego is dead. Visual poetry by Nico Vassilakis

Nico Vassilakis

visual poetry (detail) - nico vassilakis

… [Read more...]

Some G*ddamn Horses!: paintings by Silas Plum

Silas Plum

The Wild Woman of Karakorum (detail) - Silas Plum

These paintings will be exhibited on October 11, 2019 at Youngblood Art Studio in The Plains, Virginia. All the details are here. … [Read more...]

Chocolate, Cigar and Orange Pekoe: visual poems by hiromi suzuki

hiromi suzuki

(detail) visual poetry by hiromi suzuki

I am collecting old postcards in tins. Tins are boxes emptied of souvenirs such as chocolate candies, cigars, and tea leaves. Old postcards are purchased at my secret store in Tokyo. By the way, I … [Read more...]

Five poems and four collages by Steve Dalachinsky

Steve Dalachinsky

actual size collage (detail) - Steve Dalachinsky

the blood hustle   (more than a lb. of flesh) - “everything is somewhere else.” - for gregory corso @ perazzo funeral … [Read more...]

The Tarot of the Golden Scissors: collages by Emma Anna

Emma Anna

Strength (detail) - Emma Anna

I give guided tours to places that don't yet exist. … [Read more...]

River Stories: collages by Selena Dixon

Selena Dixon

River of eyes - River of agreement (detail) - collage by Selena Dixon

The title of this artist's book is River Stories. It visually considers the events that might flow in and through a life. Some images cover two pages while others are single pages. Each page has a … [Read more...]

Twelve collages by Bill Wolak

Bill Wolak

9 Bewildered by Neon Lips (detail)

The joy of collage is finding the endless connections between seemingly unrelated things. In some collages, the juxtaposition of ordinary with the delirious diversity of dream imagery forces the mind … [Read more...]

Nixon, Kennedy, and Brooks Brothers: Robert Rauschenberg’s Monogram, 1955-59

Max King Cap

Monogram by Robert Rauschenberg

No wonder your president has to be an actor. He's gotta look good on television. Emmett Lathrop "Doc" Brown, Ph.D. Back to the Future, 1985 It stands triumphantly—a voracious … [Read more...]

Three collages by Alicia Cole

Alicia Cole

Title goes up the side (detail) - collage by Alicia Cole

An entirely self-taught artist, Alicia Cole works in collage, drawing, fabric/embroidery, mixed media, works on canvas, and sculpture. While many of her drawings, paintings, mixed media, collage … [Read more...]

Eight pieces by C.R. Resetarits

C. R. Resetarits

boat 1 (detail) cr resetarits

I like edges and refuse. I like rebuilding things, and I like composition, patterns, palettes, visual rhythms. The right combos make me happy or relaxed or amused. I used to rehab houses and found … [Read more...]

Seven paintings by Judith Skillman

Judith Skillman

2 Yellow Hills (detail)- painting by Judith Skillman

These are done with oil on canvas; some employ cold wax. I like minimalist landscapes and seascapes. Flowers in groups of two. No people! Rep shots are from the Pacific Northwest, my home for the past … [Read more...]

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R.I.P. Michael McClure 1932-2020

Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

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