I am very pleased to announce my latest big project!

Photography and poetry meet in new exhibit

BRISTOL — Two Rhode Island artists have launched an exhibit exploring the relationship between different art forms.
Dating to ancient Greece, “ekphrasis” is the practice of literary writing about visual art. In “Braving the Light: Rhode Island Portraits in Photography and Poetry,” poet Kim Baker imagines the story behind a selection of work by photographer Seth Jacobson — the secret lives of early morning passengers at Kingston Station; an unlikely love story set against the Pell Bridge in Newport; and what pebbles rolling in the surf on the Saunderstown shoreline tell us about the cosmos and ourselves.
The exhibit, sponsored by the Bristol Art Museum, is on display in the second floor atrium at the Roger Williams University School of Law through Jan. 9, 2012. The building is located at 10 Metacom Ave.
A reception for the artists will be held Friday November 4th from 4:00 to 8:00 PM. The event is open to the public, and refreshments will be served.
Also on display are photographs from Jacobson’s Rhode Island Portrait Project, a series highlighting community-minded working professionals in southern Rhode Island.

About the artists:
When she isn’t teaching the virtues of the comma at Roger Williams University School of Law, writing poetry about big hair and Elvis, and doing the Cha-Cha, Kim Baker works to end violence against women. Her poems have been published online and in print and essays broadcast on National Public Radio, and she is currently working on a book of ekphrasis poems. She lives in Warwick and shares her musings at http://thinkingoutsidethesign.blogspot.com/

Based in Saunderstown, Seth Jacobson is a professional wedding, portrait and bar/bat mitzvah photographer since 1999. Jacobson and his work have been featured in Rhode Island newspapers and other publications including TIME magazine. His volunteer work includes photography for The DMP Annual Thanksgiving Home Makeover in South County; The American Diabetes Association; The American Cancer Society; The Jimmy Fund, and Butler Hospital. He shares photography and lighting tips on his blog, https://sethjacobson.wordpress.com/

"Braving the light"

Turn sideways into the light, as they say the old ones did, and disappear into the originality of it all.  David Whyte

Be brave.

Take a walk along the rock-strewn beach.

In the rain.

The pebbles will never be as treacherous

or as beautiful

as when they are wet.

Hold a few stones

in the deep place beneath your fingers

and above your palm:

orange and gray

egg speckled

and the one black as a whale’s back.

Then hold one to your nose

and smell time itself

for you are holding the cosmos

something primal and full of stories.

And now, you are a chapter too.

And when rock and sand and salt

take your breath away

and you have no idea

which way is home,

face the bay

where a single sunray

glazes the waves.

Then turn sideways into the light

as they say the old ones did

and disappear into the originality of it all

carrying with you time itself

and the satisfaction and contentment

only courage brings.