Artists’ Statement

Cari Grindem-Corbett &

Andrew Stieneke

THE OLD MEN ADMIRING THEMSELVES IN THE WATERWilliam Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

HEARD the old, old men say, 'Everything alters, And one by one we drop away.' They had hands like claws, and their knees Were twisted like the old thorn-trees By the waters. 'All that's beautiful drifts away Like the waters.'

has long been a part of human history. It is in the beginnings of all stories, and at the beginning of music. From the oral traditions leading to epics like the Odys-sey and the plays of Euripides, to oracles making their prophecies in verse, to the inau-gurations, marriages, cards, and funerals of today, poetry is a vibrant part of our lives in history. But to really finish the sentence 'poetry is...' is an arduous task, so instead, I'll say: Poetry is, to me, the color lilac in a meadow, the rush of orange across the sea on some dusk evenings, the gentle twining of thoughts within a person, it is, more than anything, to me, the connection of humans, the communication of the unspeakable, it is lan-guage's art, and so much more than ceremony and academics, it is the heart of words.

Photography is an extension of the inner experience, one person's vision, view of the world in a single moment. It is like a poem, composed live in the moment, and without words. Sometimes, a single image can say more, and to more people, and in an instant, than a handful of words could reasonably hope to. An im-age both 'is' in a literal sense, and 'is' subjectively through the treatment of the artist and the vision of the viewer. It's fascinating to me to explore in this differ-ent form of communication. I hope to find those things, like physical beauty, that

are often hard to relay with description, and illuminate them. That uncontrolled smile, the underside of a conch shell. In a way, the more time we spend with po-etry, the more I find photography is a beautiful place to hide from the meanings of words--only the visual is present. The meaning of a sunset, or a face. Beyond this exploring the unconsious, and connection of reality and our perceptions, this means: You have to tell stories to give images exact meanings, meanings beyond their beauty, pictures help us tell stories, keep a grip on history, remember our lives.

is a writer & photographer, She also works with her hands in binding books, creating frames, and planting container gardens. She is a recent graduate of linguistics and poetry from NC State, where she is currently studying under John Bala-ban and Dorianne Laux for her Master of Fine Arts. She has worked in web design, virtual microscopy, and serves as a Committee Chair for the North Carolina Poetry Society as Webmaster. She is the official photographer for the Owens-Walters Reading Series, Catering by Chefs, the Five Points Poetry salon, as well as several individual authors. Her poetry has appeared in War, Literature, and the Arts, Pinesong, and Americana. 919-346-3161 - Cari@inawildflower.com

CariAs a poet, I strive to bend a series of sounds and images along a stream of narrative. While, as a visual artist, I revel in being able to show the world I actually see, rather than relying on the imagination of others to render the image, as one does with words. And I go with this freedom, this idea of images as 'facts', in search of scenes far from the ordinary. I ap-proach photography as a meditation, a practice in visualizing what is be-fore you, and seeing the world itself as a work of art. Often I feel, I am sharing the things that I found on a journey, rather than creating myself. I scour the grass inching along in crouch with a macro/microscope lens the length and width of my forearm in search of abstract paintings hid-ing in the world we live in. And, I try to take things we see everyday, such as leaves or types of food, and show them in a way I think they've never been seen before. There is an intense beauty in the human face, which, if I am quiet enough to become unno-ticed, I love to photograph and I feel is sacred.

My work is heavily influenced by the writings and paintings of Was-sily Kandinsky, the obsessions and creations of Anselm Kiefer, and the Japanese haiga paintings and the poets Basho and Issa.

We're children of the 80's, even if we were only alive to see a few years of it. Love video games, music, and murder mysteries, and it's impossible to describe how awesome it is when all three of these come together. Secretly, we're high-brow englishmen, and a little bit country.

Our first date was at an Indian restaurant in college, and we have a lot of history with pizza. We are firm supporters of Man United, and Harry Redknapp (it's a long story), and we're divided when it comes to the World Cup, supporting England and Argentina. Hockey is the same, between a staunch Hurricanes supporter and a life-long Pittsburgh/Avalancher. We both know German, and would love to say we know Chinese.

We've just discovered club music, and are grateful for it's fun. Oh, and we've gone veggie, but the kind that, when pressed, would prefer the steak option to the chicken, and we did it partly for the good karma and mostly because after working in avian wildlife rehabilitation, gross injuries look just like KFC. We're very laid back and easy going. We find art and his-tory museums exciting, and love long road trips.

We love exploring places and learning about people through our pictures. We're constantly amazed by how a picture can tell a complete and compelling story without words, and we're always looking for a new way to make a portrait.

(....for Fun)

I've only recently come to see art as something that I can do. Schooled for the better part of 20 years with a personal focus only on math and physics, and later meteorology, it has taken know-ing Cari to understand what art can be. But now when I look at a cloud or a river or anything in the natural world, I see not only something to learn about, but something beautiful that needs cap-turing, whether it be in words or in a picture. I find a great feeling of challenge in trying to describe things I've seen with an accurate representation of the feelings that they conjure, whether it is the

awesome feeling of a dying supercell thunderstorm's out-flow wind pushing your body swiftly backward in a Nebras-ka field, or more mundane things, like watching the erratic track of an ant's movement toward a window, clutching some forgotten crumb. In this world exist a myriad of in-tricate and small, huge, complex and simple things that we see, and my experience of something will be distinctly different yet uniquely similar to yours, even if we are stand-ing next to each other at the time. It is in this that the inherent challenge exists; perhaps no one picture can really describe exactly what that sunset looked like as I sat on a pier at the ocean several months ago; the hue of the deep red with contrail streaks across it, fading to a deep blue above, is unique in how I was experiencing it at the time. But if I want to relate to anyone the beauty that I saw in the world that night, it is really only through my attempts at art that I can do so. 919-346-3161 - Andrew@inawildflower.com

To see more of our work, and to find out how to commission us for por-traits, events and art, find us at:

www.inawildflower.com

Cari@inawildflower.comAndrew@inawildflower.com

919.346.3161connect with us at:

www.facebook.com/inawildflowerwww.twitter.com/inawildflower