Sydney High Rise Variation #17 for Les Murray

SOLD! T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #17 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6". SOLD!

Portrait of Dave Brubeck

T. Renner, "Portrait of Dave Brubeck," 2008, acrylic on paper, 10.5" x 13.5".

This portrait of Dave Brubeck was my first attempt at a portrait. I used the cover of the January 2008 issue of DownBeat magazine as my model. Click on the image to see a full-size version!

Sydney High Rise Variation #16 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #16 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6".

The official Poetry Scores Art Invitational press release:

On Friday, November 13, Poetry Scores will celebrate the release of its fourth poetry score CD with an Art Invitational devoted to the same poem, "The Sydney Highrise Variations" by the Australian poet Les Murray.

The host venue, The Luminary Center for the Arts, is located at 4900 Reber Place at Kingshighway, just across the street from Tower Grove Park and just down the block from The Royale, which will host an after-party following the 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. release party and art opening. (See below for list of artists.)

The concept of a Poetry Scores Art Invitational is simple. Contributing artists make work that responds to the poem, and they title the work after a verbatim quote from the poem. The titles then dictate where in the show the pieces are placed, as the work is positioned according to where in the flow of the poem the language used for the title appears. In this way, in a sense, it is the poem itself that hangs the show.

The Sydney Highrise Variations Art Invitational also will be a silent auction, where the artists themselves set their opening bids (low). At the end of bidding, all sales are concluded the night of the show and proceeds are split evenly between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a St. Louis-based arts organization that translates poetry into other media. (Cash, check or credit accepted for sales.)

The organization’s primary artistic form is one it innovated: the poetry score, a long poem set to music as one scores a film.

The November 13 Art Invitational will also be a release party for the poetry score The Sydney Highrise Variations, co-produced by Matt Fuller and Chris King, and featuring the music of Three Fried Men, Middle Sleep (post-progressive rock improvisers from early 1980’s Los Angeles), Robert Goetz and Frank Heyer.

Limited quantities of the organization’s three previous poetry scores, Go South for Animal Index, Blind Cat Black and Crossing America by Leo Connellan, also will be available for sale. While supplies last, all CD purchases come with a complimentary beverage from Schlafly Beer or O’Fallon Brewing.

Contributing artists for the Art Invitational, in the order their work will appear in the show, include Greg Edmondson, Andrew Torch, Michael Hoffman, John Minkoff, Tim McAvin, Jenna Bauer, Kim Humphries, Keith Buchholz, Amy Alton Bautz, Lyndsey Scott, Brea McAnally, Hap Phillips, Grace Woodard, Dana Smith, Kim Richardson, Kevin Belford, Christopher Gustave, Amy VanDonsel, Michael Behle, Heather Corley, Melanie Persch, Thom Fletcher, Chris King, Stefene Russell, Carmelita Nunez, Jason Wallace Triefenbach, Alexa Hoyer, Jon Cournoyer, Tim Meehan, robin street-morris, Goran Maric, Colin Michael Shaw, Daniel Shown, Tony Renner and Eric Woods of Firecracker Press.

Other confirmed artists who have not yet provided the title from the poem they are using for their work include Gina Alvarez, Nancy Exarhu, Alicia LaChance, Dianna Lucas, Julie Malone, Michael Paradise, Justin Tolentino, Cindy Tower and Robert Van Dillen.

In an essay he composed on commission for the Poetry Scores CD liner notes, Les Murray’s biographer Peter F. Alexander writes, "'The Sydney Highrise Variations' is a set of five linked poems which Les Murray first published in 1980, and subsequently included in his volume The People’s Otherworld (1982). The entire sequence is a meditation about the complex culture of the modern world, and Australia’s place in it."

Alexander –- a professor of English at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and author of Les Murray: A Life in Progress (Oxford University Press) -- concludes his essay: "The whole poem sequence derives its tension from this ambiguous response to the modern world. Murray ultimately is both excited and repelled by modernity, even as he feels himself 'vibrant with modernity’s strange anger'. His is an older and a newer vision, both seeing modernism’s history and anticipating what will replace it."

For more information about Poetry Scores or this event, contact creative director Chris King at 314-265-1435 or brodog [@] hotmail.com.

Poetry Scores is an arts organization based in St. Louis, Missouri (U.S.A.) devoted to translating poetry into other media. It has been featured on BBC Radio 3, NPR and in most local media. Poetry Scores is a Missouri non-profit organization. Its Board of Directors includes: Dianna Lucas (president), Serra Bording-Jones (treasurer), Stefene Russell (secretary), John Eiler, Matt Fernandes, Chris King, Stephen Lindsley, Charlois Lumpkins and K. Curtis Lyle.

Poetry Scores acknowledges the continuing support of Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, KDHX Community Media, Schlafly Beer, O’Fallon Brewing, host venues past and present (The Luminary, Hoffman LaChance, Mad Art), and all contributing artists.

Day of the Dead Silent Auction

NOT AVAILABLE. T. Renner, "Day of the Dead," 2008, acrylic on photograph, 4" x 6". NOT AVAILABLE.

I'm donating the above piece (matted in a modest frame) to a silent auction to be held on Saturday, October 31, at Mokabe's, 3606 Arsenal Street, St. Louis. The opening bid will be stupid-low but I'm not going to reveal it here! You'll just have to go to Mokabe's on Saturday to find out for yourself!

Event organizer Maria Guadalupe Massey writes:

The Dia de los Muertos event this year is a benefit for Leonard Peltier's defense fund & Word in Motion SLAM poetry programs for inner city schools.

The event is at Mokabe's, Grand and Arsenal in South St. Louis, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with Skeleton Samba parade on the bill again. We will have the run of the place for a mini-FIESTA and the outdoors if the day allows. I would love to see the skeleton samba snaking around the block.

It was a fabulous celebration last year, and I hope to improve on it in every way! I'm hoping you are available for some part of the day to celebrate with us again, even the whole day if you're are willing.

Confirmed participatants:

WAYNE ST. WAYNE: painting skeletal exposed bones on volunteer skeletons for Samba parade & pen and ink design of flier/postcard/poster (there could always be more poster designs by several artists) -- he's already at work on a design that includes a skeleton SAMBA parade with wrestling super-hero El Santo, musician skeletons, lizards, salsa dancers and more

MAXine BEACH: poet and writer

PAUL STEWART: "The one-man riot" poetry probably accompanied by Peter Hubert Woods on guitar, skeleton samba parade

GUADALUPE SOUNDS: music & poetry performance celebrating the Dia de los Muertos & Roll Call for the Dead and skeleton samba parade

ELIZABETH SMITH: sign language translator for portions of the event

DAVID WRAITH DANDRIDGE: filmmaker, writer, performance poet, photographer, to do reading/poetry to celebrate loved ones/heroes.

AMY CATE SCHROEDER: creative artist, skeleton samba parade,

ANNIE MAE, INC.: shop celebrating multi-cultural religious expression/pagan, crystals, incense.

peace, love, poetry,
Maria

Sydney High Rise Variation #15 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #15 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6".

Crosses at Crave

John Montre, "Installation View at Crave," 2009, digital photograph.


T. Renner, "Cross #7," 2009, oil on paper, 8" x 10".

Just a reminder that my show of seven paintings currently on display at Crave Coffee House will be coming down at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, October 30. Crave is located near the Saint Louis University Nursing School at the corner of Caroline and Theresa.

Note: "Cross #7," was previously named "Cross #14."


T. Renner, "Cross #1," 2007, acrylic on canvas, 8" x 10".

Sydney High Rise Variation #14 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #14 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6".

The official Poetry Scores Art Invitational press release:

On Friday, November 13, Poetry Scores will celebrate the release of its fourth poetry score CD with an Art Invitational devoted to the same poem, "The Sydney Highrise Variations" by the Australian poet Les Murray.

The host venue, The Luminary Center for the Arts, is located at 4900 Reber Place at Kingshighway, just across the street from Tower Grove Park and just down the block from The Royale, which will host an after-party following the 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. release party and art opening. (See below for list of artists.)

The concept of a Poetry Scores Art Invitational is simple. Contributing artists make work that responds to the poem, and they title the work after a verbatim quote from the poem. The titles then dictate where in the show the pieces are placed, as the work is positioned according to where in the flow of the poem the language used for the title appears. In this way, in a sense, it is the poem itself that hangs the show.

The Sydney Highrise Variations Art Invitational also will be a silent auction, where the artists themselves set their opening bids (low). At the end of bidding, all sales are concluded the night of the show and proceeds are split evenly between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a St. Louis-based arts organization that translates poetry into other media. (Cash, check or credit accepted for sales.)

The organization’s primary artistic form is one it innovated: the poetry score, a long poem set to music as one scores a film.

The November 13 Art Invitational will also be a release party for the poetry score The Sydney Highrise Variations, co-produced by Matt Fuller and Chris King, and featuring the music of Three Fried Men, Middle Sleep (post-progressive rock improvisers from early 1980’s Los Angeles), Robert Goetz and Frank Heyer.

Limited quantities of the organization’s three previous poetry scores, Go South for Animal Index, Blind Cat Black and Crossing America by Leo Connellan, also will be available for sale. While supplies last, all CD purchases come with a complimentary beverage from Schlafly Beer or O’Fallon Brewing.

Contributing artists for the Art Invitational, in the order their work will appear in the show, include Greg Edmondson, Andrew Torch, Michael Hoffman, John Minkoff, Tim McAvin, Jenna Bauer, Kim Humphries, Keith Buchholz, Amy Alton Bautz, Lyndsey Scott, Brea McAnally, Hap Phillips, Grace Woodard, Dana Smith, Kim Richardson, Kevin Belford, Christopher Gustave, Amy VanDonsel, Michael Behle, Heather Corley, Melanie Persch, Thom Fletcher, Chris King, Stefene Russell, Carmelita Nunez, Jason Wallace Triefenbach, Alexa Hoyer, Jon Cournoyer, Tim Meehan, robin street-morris, Goran Maric, Colin Michael Shaw, Daniel Shown, Tony Renner and Eric Woods of Firecracker Press.

Other confirmed artists who have not yet provided the title from the poem they are using for their work include Gina Alvarez, Nancy Exarhu, Alicia LaChance, Dianna Lucas, Julie Malone, Michael Paradise, Justin Tolentino, Cindy Tower and Robert Van Dillen.

In an essay he composed on commission for the Poetry Scores CD liner notes, Les Murray’s biographer Peter F. Alexander writes, "'The Sydney Highrise Variations' is a set of five linked poems which Les Murray first published in 1980, and subsequently included in his volume The People’s Otherworld (1982). The entire sequence is a meditation about the complex culture of the modern world, and Australia’s place in it."

Alexander –- a professor of English at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and author of Les Murray: A Life in Progress (Oxford University Press) -- concludes his essay: "The whole poem sequence derives its tension from this ambiguous response to the modern world. Murray ultimately is both excited and repelled by modernity, even as he feels himself 'vibrant with modernity’s strange anger'. His is an older and a newer vision, both seeing modernism’s history and anticipating what will replace it."

For more information about Poetry Scores or this event, contact creative director Chris King at 314-265-1435 or brodog [@] hotmail.com.

Poetry Scores is an arts organization based in St. Louis, Missouri (U.S.A.) devoted to translating poetry into other media. It has been featured on BBC Radio 3, NPR and in most local media. Poetry Scores is a Missouri non-profit organization. Its Board of Directors includes: Dianna Lucas (president), Serra Bording-Jones (treasurer), Stefene Russell (secretary), John Eiler, Matt Fernandes, Chris King, Stephen Lindsley, Charlois Lumpkins and K. Curtis Lyle.

Poetry Scores acknowledges the continuing support of Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, KDHX Community Media, Schlafly Beer, O’Fallon Brewing, host venues past and present (The Luminary, Hoffman LaChance, Mad Art), and all contributing artists.

Sydney High Rise Variation #13 for Les Murray

SOLD! T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #13 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6". SOLD!

Sydney High Rise Variation #12 for Les Murray

SOLD!T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #12 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6". SOLD!

The official Poetry Scores Art Invitational press release:

On Friday, November 13, Poetry Scores will celebrate the release of its fourth poetry score CD with an Art Invitational devoted to the same poem, "The Sydney Highrise Variations" by the Australian poet Les Murray.

The host venue, The Luminary Center for the Arts, is located at 4900 Reber Place at Kingshighway, just across the street from Tower Grove Park and just down the block from The Royale, which will host an after-party following the 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. release party and art opening. (See below for list of artists.)

The concept of a Poetry Scores Art Invitational is simple. Contributing artists make work that responds to the poem, and they title the work after a verbatim quote from the poem. The titles then dictate where in the show the pieces are placed, as the work is positioned according to where in the flow of the poem the language used for the title appears. In this way, in a sense, it is the poem itself that hangs the show.

The Sydney Highrise Variations Art Invitational also will be a silent auction, where the artists themselves set their opening bids (low). At the end of bidding, all sales are concluded the night of the show and proceeds are split evenly between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a St. Louis-based arts organization that translates poetry into other media. (Cash, check or credit accepted for sales.)

The organization’s primary artistic form is one it innovated: the poetry score, a long poem set to music as one scores a film.

The November 13 Art Invitational will also be a release party for the poetry score The Sydney Highrise Variations, co-produced by Matt Fuller and Chris King, and featuring the music of Three Fried Men, Middle Sleep (post-progressive rock improvisers from early 1980’s Los Angeles), Robert Goetz and Frank Heyer.

Limited quantities of the organization’s three previous poetry scores, Go South for Animal Index, Blind Cat Black and Crossing America by Leo Connellan, also will be available for sale. While supplies last, all CD purchases come with a complimentary beverage from Schlafly Beer or O’Fallon Brewing.

Contributing artists for the Art Invitational, in the order their work will appear in the show, include Greg Edmondson, Andrew Torch, Michael Hoffman, John Minkoff, Tim McAvin, Jenna Bauer, Kim Humphries, Keith Buchholz, Amy Alton Bautz, Lyndsey Scott, Brea McAnally, Hap Phillips, Grace Woodard, Dana Smith, Kim Richardson, Kevin Belford, Christopher Gustave, Amy VanDonsel, Michael Behle, Heather Corley, Melanie Persch, Thom Fletcher, Chris King, Stefene Russell, Carmelita Nunez, Jason Wallace Triefenbach, Alexa Hoyer, Jon Cournoyer, Tim Meehan, robin street-morris, Goran Maric, Colin Michael Shaw, Daniel Shown, Tony Renner and Eric Woods of Firecracker Press.

Other confirmed artists who have not yet provided the title from the poem they are using for their work include Gina Alvarez, Nancy Exarhu, Alicia LaChance, Dianna Lucas, Julie Malone, Michael Paradise, Justin Tolentino, Cindy Tower and Robert Van Dillen.

In an essay he composed on commission for the Poetry Scores CD liner notes, Les Murray’s biographer Peter F. Alexander writes, "'The Sydney Highrise Variations' is a set of five linked poems which Les Murray first published in 1980, and subsequently included in his volume The People’s Otherworld (1982). The entire sequence is a meditation about the complex culture of the modern world, and Australia’s place in it."

Alexander –- a professor of English at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and author of Les Murray: A Life in Progress (Oxford University Press) -- concludes his essay: "The whole poem sequence derives its tension from this ambiguous response to the modern world. Murray ultimately is both excited and repelled by modernity, even as he feels himself 'vibrant with modernity’s strange anger'. His is an older and a newer vision, both seeing modernism’s history and anticipating what will replace it."

For more information about Poetry Scores or this event, contact creative director Chris King at 314-265-1435 or brodog [@] hotmail.com.

Poetry Scores is an arts organization based in St. Louis, Missouri (U.S.A.) devoted to translating poetry into other media. It has been featured on BBC Radio 3, NPR and in most local media. Poetry Scores is a Missouri non-profit organization. Its Board of Directors includes: Dianna Lucas (president), Serra Bording-Jones (treasurer), Stefene Russell (secretary), John Eiler, Matt Fernandes, Chris King, Stephen Lindsley, Charlois Lumpkins and K. Curtis Lyle.

Poetry Scores acknowledges the continuing support of Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, KDHX Community Media, Schlafly Beer, O’Fallon Brewing, host venues past and present (The Luminary, Hoffman LaChance, Mad Art), and all contributing artists.

Sydney High Rise Variation #11 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #11 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6".

Sydney High Rise Variation #10 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #10 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6".

The official Poetry Scores Art Invitational press release:

On Friday, November 13, Poetry Scores will celebrate the release of its fourth poetry score CD with an Art Invitational devoted to the same poem, "The Sydney Highrise Variations" by the Australian poet Les Murray.

The host venue, The Luminary Center for the Arts, is located at 4900 Reber Place at Kingshighway, just across the street from Tower Grove Park and just down the block from The Royale, which will host an after-party following the 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. release party and art opening. (See below for list of artists.)

The concept of a Poetry Scores Art Invitational is simple. Contributing artists make work that responds to the poem, and they title the work after a verbatim quote from the poem. The titles then dictate where in the show the pieces are placed, as the work is positioned according to where in the flow of the poem the language used for the title appears. In this way, in a sense, it is the poem itself that hangs the show.

The Sydney Highrise Variations Art Invitational also will be a silent auction, where the artists themselves set their opening bids (low). At the end of bidding, all sales are concluded the night of the show and proceeds are split evenly between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a St. Louis-based arts organization that translates poetry into other media. (Cash, check or credit accepted for sales.)

The organization’s primary artistic form is one it innovated: the poetry score, a long poem set to music as one scores a film.

The November 13 Art Invitational will also be a release party for the poetry score The Sydney Highrise Variations, co-produced by Matt Fuller and Chris King, and featuring the music of Three Fried Men, Middle Sleep (post-progressive rock improvisers from early 1980’s Los Angeles), Robert Goetz and Frank Heyer.

Limited quantities of the organization’s three previous poetry scores, Go South for Animal Index, Blind Cat Black and Crossing America by Leo Connellan, also will be available for sale. While supplies last, all CD purchases come with a complimentary beverage from Schlafly Beer or O’Fallon Brewing.

Contributing artists for the Art Invitational, in the order their work will appear in the show, include Greg Edmondson, Andrew Torch, Michael Hoffman, John Minkoff, Tim McAvin, Jenna Bauer, Kim Humphries, Keith Buchholz, Amy Alton Bautz, Lyndsey Scott, Brea McAnally, Hap Phillips, Grace Woodard, Dana Smith, Kim Richardson, Kevin Belford, Christopher Gustave, Amy VanDonsel, Michael Behle, Heather Corley, Melanie Persch, Thom Fletcher, Chris King, Stefene Russell, Carmelita Nunez, Jason Wallace Triefenbach, Alexa Hoyer, Jon Cournoyer, Tim Meehan, robin street-morris, Goran Maric, Colin Michael Shaw, Daniel Shown, Tony Renner and Eric Woods of Firecracker Press.

Other confirmed artists who have not yet provided the title from the poem they are using for their work include Gina Alvarez, Nancy Exarhu, Alicia LaChance, Dianna Lucas, Julie Malone, Michael Paradise, Justin Tolentino, Cindy Tower and Robert Van Dillen.

In an essay he composed on commission for the Poetry Scores CD liner notes, Les Murray’s biographer Peter F. Alexander writes, "'The Sydney Highrise Variations' is a set of five linked poems which Les Murray first published in 1980, and subsequently included in his volume The People’s Otherworld (1982). The entire sequence is a meditation about the complex culture of the modern world, and Australia’s place in it."

Alexander –- a professor of English at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and author of Les Murray: A Life in Progress (Oxford University Press) -- concludes his essay: "The whole poem sequence derives its tension from this ambiguous response to the modern world. Murray ultimately is both excited and repelled by modernity, even as he feels himself 'vibrant with modernity’s strange anger'. His is an older and a newer vision, both seeing modernism’s history and anticipating what will replace it."

For more information about Poetry Scores or this event, contact creative director Chris King at 314-265-1435 or brodog [@] hotmail.com.

Poetry Scores is an arts organization based in St. Louis, Missouri (U.S.A.) devoted to translating poetry into other media. It has been featured on BBC Radio 3, NPR and in most local media. Poetry Scores is a Missouri non-profit organization. Its Board of Directors includes: Dianna Lucas (president), Serra Bording-Jones (treasurer), Stefene Russell (secretary), John Eiler, Matt Fernandes, Chris King, Stephen Lindsley, Charlois Lumpkins and K. Curtis Lyle.

Poetry Scores acknowledges the continuing support of Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, KDHX Community Media, Schlafly Beer, O’Fallon Brewing, host venues past and present (The Luminary, Hoffman LaChance, Mad Art), and all contributing artists.

Sydney High Rise Variation #9 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #9 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 4" x 6".

$23.50 Club: Four Paintings for Willem de Kooning

Originally posted on Monday, August 25, 2008:


T. Renner, "$23.50 Club #4 (for de Kooning)," 2008, acrylic on paper, 8" x 10" [SOLD].

This was one of those mornings that saw me painting even before the coffee was finished brewing. The other night I had a dream about a black and white painting. None of these is that painting. I can still visualize the painting in my dream so I may try again to capture it. [Note: I can't remember or if any subsequent paintings came close to capturing it.]


T. Renner, "$23.50 Club #2 (for de Kooning)," 2008, acrylic on paper, 8" x 10".

These paintings are named for Willem de Kooning because I spent a little bit of time, charcoal and paper in hand, with Sally Yard's "Willem de Kooning: Works, writings and interviews" this weekend and I think the influence comes shining through.


T. Renner, "$23.50 Club #3 (for de Kooning)," 2008, acrylic on paper, 11" x 8.5".

The name "$23.50 Club" comes from the 1935 Works Progress Administration's Art Project that paid de Kooning, among others, $23.50 a week to deliver a small painting every month.


T. Renner, $23.50 Club #1 (for de Kooning)," 2008, acrylic on paper, 11" x 8.5".

Sydney High Rise Variation #8 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #8 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7".

The official Poetry Scores Art Invitational press release:

On Friday, November 13, Poetry Scores will celebrate the release of its fourth poetry score CD with an Art Invitational devoted to the same poem, "The Sydney Highrise Variations" by the Australian poet Les Murray.

The host venue, The Luminary Center for the Arts, is located at 4900 Reber Place at Kingshighway, just across the street from Tower Grove Park and just down the block from The Royale, which will host an after-party following the 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. release party and art opening. (See below for list of artists.)

The concept of a Poetry Scores Art Invitational is simple. Contributing artists make work that responds to the poem, and they title the work after a verbatim quote from the poem. The titles then dictate where in the show the pieces are placed, as the work is positioned according to where in the flow of the poem the language used for the title appears. In this way, in a sense, it is the poem itself that hangs the show.

The Sydney Highrise Variations Art Invitational also will be a silent auction, where the artists themselves set their opening bids (low). At the end of bidding, all sales are concluded the night of the show and proceeds are split evenly between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a St. Louis-based arts organization that translates poetry into other media. (Cash, check or credit accepted for sales.)

The organization’s primary artistic form is one it innovated: the poetry score, a long poem set to music as one scores a film.

The November 13 Art Invitational will also be a release party for the poetry score The Sydney Highrise Variations, co-produced by Matt Fuller and Chris King, and featuring the music of Three Fried Men, Middle Sleep (post-progressive rock improvisers from early 1980’s Los Angeles), Robert Goetz and Frank Heyer.

Limited quantities of the organization’s three previous poetry scores, Go South for Animal Index, Blind Cat Black and Crossing America by Leo Connellan, also will be available for sale. While supplies last, all CD purchases come with a complimentary beverage from Schlafly Beer or O’Fallon Brewing.

Contributing artists for the Art Invitational, in the order their work will appear in the show, include Greg Edmondson, Andrew Torch, Michael Hoffman, John Minkoff, Tim McAvin, Jenna Bauer, Kim Humphries, Keith Buchholz, Amy Alton Bautz, Lyndsey Scott, Brea McAnally, Hap Phillips, Grace Woodard, Dana Smith, Kim Richardson, Kevin Belford, Christopher Gustave, Amy VanDonsel, Michael Behle, Heather Corley, Melanie Persch, Thom Fletcher, Chris King, Stefene Russell, Carmelita Nunez, Jason Wallace Triefenbach, Alexa Hoyer, Jon Cournoyer, Tim Meehan, robin street-morris, Goran Maric, Colin Michael Shaw, Daniel Shown, Tony Renner and Eric Woods of Firecracker Press.

Other confirmed artists who have not yet provided the title from the poem they are using for their work include Gina Alvarez, Nancy Exarhu, Alicia LaChance, Dianna Lucas, Julie Malone, Michael Paradise, Justin Tolentino, Cindy Tower and Robert Van Dillen.

In an essay he composed on commission for the Poetry Scores CD liner notes, Les Murray’s biographer Peter F. Alexander writes, "'The Sydney Highrise Variations' is a set of five linked poems which Les Murray first published in 1980, and subsequently included in his volume The People’s Otherworld (1982). The entire sequence is a meditation about the complex culture of the modern world, and Australia’s place in it."

Alexander –- a professor of English at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and author of Les Murray: A Life in Progress (Oxford University Press) -- concludes his essay: "The whole poem sequence derives its tension from this ambiguous response to the modern world. Murray ultimately is both excited and repelled by modernity, even as he feels himself 'vibrant with modernity’s strange anger'. His is an older and a newer vision, both seeing modernism’s history and anticipating what will replace it."

For more information about Poetry Scores or this event, contact creative director Chris King at 314-265-1435 or brodog [@] hotmail.com.

Poetry Scores is an arts organization based in St. Louis, Missouri (U.S.A.) devoted to translating poetry into other media. It has been featured on BBC Radio 3, NPR and in most local media. Poetry Scores is a Missouri non-profit organization. Its Board of Directors includes: Dianna Lucas (president), Serra Bording-Jones (treasurer), Stefene Russell (secretary), John Eiler, Matt Fernandes, Chris King, Stephen Lindsley, Charlois Lumpkins and K. Curtis Lyle.

Poetry Scores acknowledges the continuing support of Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, KDHX Community Media, Schlafly Beer, O’Fallon Brewing, host venues past and present (The Luminary, Hoffman LaChance, Mad Art), and all contributing artists.

Sydney High Rise Variation #7 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #7 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7".

Chris King, artistic director of Poetry Scores, writes:

Tony Renner is prodigiously productive as an artist and has a fancy for variations. I was hoping he would produce a set of variations for our Art Invitational to The Sydney Highrise Variations by the great Australian poet Les Murray, and he did not disappoint.

This is "Variation #1" from a set of 18 that all bear the title "more complex in their levels than their heights/and vibrant with modernity's strange anger".

Like all of the pieces being made for the show, its title is drawn from the poem. We then display the work according to where in the flow of the poem the title appears. These lines Tony has chosen conclude the poem. There is something of a traffic jam at the end, with many people falling for the last few lines, and I don't blame them; they are really evocative lines.

Six hundred glittering and genteel towns
gathered to be urban in plein air,
more complex in their levels than their heights
and vibrant with modernity's strange anger

Colin Michael Shaw, Eric Woods and Daniel Shown also are making art with titles drawn from this language, and Daniel's also is a set of variations. I love this stuff.

The Invitational is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 13 at The Luminary Center for the Arts, which is a really amazing space across from Tower Grove Park and just down Kingshighway from The Royale.

All work will be for sale on silent auction, with proceeds split three ways between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a Missouri nonprofit that translates poetry into other media. After-party at The Royale.

Sydney High Rise Variation #6 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #6 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7".

Improvisation for Carl Phillips

T. Renner, "Improvisation for Carl Phillips," 2009, acrylic on coated card stock, 5" x 7".

Carl Phillips is finalist for National Book Award
By Jane Henderson
Post-Dispatch Book Editor

Washington University professor Carl Phillips is a poetry finalist for this year’s National Book Awards.

Speak Low, published by Farrar Straus & Giroux, is one of five titles in the poetry category, the National Book Foundation announced today. The awards will be given Nov. 18 in New York.

Phillips has won many poetry honors, including the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts poetry award. He was a National Book Award finalist in 2004 and 1998.

Of the latest nomination, he said today he was "honored, surprised, excited."

He doesn’t necessarily expect to win, but says "it is pretty special to be singled out at all.... Many of the most significant poets in American letters have never won the award or been nominated." In April, poet Jenny Mueller reviewed his latest book for the Post-Dispatch, saying "Theme and style join perfectly in Speak Low, Carl Phillips’ 10th collection of poetry. In poem after poem, the speaker turns to address questions of power. The style of the poems, as they frame and shape these questions, feels at once pliant and masterful.”

Poetry awards and nominations can bring new attention to a book, Phillips says, but it’s "not like an Oprah book."

This semester at Washington University he is teaching a course about American poetry since the 1950s. Phillips has lived in St. Louis at least part time since 1993, but still owns a cottage in Massachusetts, where he lives during part of the year.

Here is the list of finalists for the National Book Award in poetry:

Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan University Press)
Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again (Viking Penguin)
Carl Phillips, Speak Low (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Keith Waldrop, Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy (University of California Press)

Sydney High Rise Variation #5 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #5 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7".

Chris King, artistic director of Poetry Scores, writes:

Tony Renner is prodigiously productive as an artist and has a fancy for variations. I was hoping he would produce a set of variations for our Art Invitational to The Sydney Highrise Variations by the great Australian poet Les Murray, and he did not disappoint.

This is "Variation #1" from a set of 18 that all bear the title "more complex in their levels than their heights/and vibrant with modernity's strange anger".

Like all of the pieces being made for the show, its title is drawn from the poem. We then display the work according to where in the flow of the poem the title appears. These lines Tony has chosen conclude the poem. There is something of a traffic jam at the end, with many people falling for the last few lines, and I don't blame them; they are really evocative lines.

Six hundred glittering and genteel towns
gathered to be urban in plein air,
more complex in their levels than their heights
and vibrant with modernity's strange anger

Colin Michael Shaw, Eric Woods and Daniel Shown also are making art with titles drawn from this language, and Daniel's also is a set of variations. I love this stuff.

The Invitational is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 13 at The Luminary Center for the Arts, which is a really amazing space across from Tower Grove Park and just down Kingshighway from The Royale.

All work will be for sale on silent auction, with proceeds split three ways between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a Missouri nonprofit that translates poetry into other media. After-party at The Royale.

Sydney High Rise Variation #4 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #4 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7".

Sydney High Rise Variation #3 for Les Murray

SOLD! T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #3 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7". SOLD!

Chris King, artistic director of Poetry Scores, writes:

Tony Renner is prodigiously productive as an artist and has a fancy for variations. I was hoping he would produce a set of variations for our Art Invitational to The Sydney Highrise Variations by the great Australian poet Les Murray, and he did not disappoint.

This is "Variation #1" from a set of 18 that all bear the title "more complex in their levels than their heights/and vibrant with modernity's strange anger".

Like all of the pieces being made for the show, its title is drawn from the poem. We then display the work according to where in the flow of the poem the title appears. These lines Tony has chosen conclude the poem. There is something of a traffic jam at the end, with many people falling for the last few lines, and I don't blame them; they are really evocative lines.

Six hundred glittering and genteel towns
gathered to be urban in plein air,
more complex in their levels than their heights
and vibrant with modernity's strange anger

Colin Michael Shaw, Eric Woods and Daniel Shown also are making art with titles drawn from this language, and Daniel's also is a set of variations. I love this stuff.

The Invitational is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 13 at The Luminary Center for the Arts, which is a really amazing space across from Tower Grove Park and just down Kingshighway from The Royale.

All work will be for sale on silent auction, with proceeds split three ways between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a Missouri nonprofit that translates poetry into other media. After-party at The Royale.

Sydney High Rise Variation #2 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #2 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7".

Sydney High Rise Variation #1 for Les Murray

T. Renner, "Sydney High Rise Variation #1 for Les Murray," 2009, acrylic on paper, 5" x 7".

Chris King, artistic director of Poetry Scores, writes:

Tony Renner is prodigiously productive as an artist and has a fancy for variations. I was hoping he would produce a set of variations for our Art Invitational to The Sydney Highrise Variations by the great Australian poet Les Murray, and he did not disappoint.

This is "Variation #1" from a set of 18 that all bear the title "more complex in their levels than their heights/and vibrant with modernity's strange anger".

Like all of the pieces being made for the show, its title is drawn from the poem. We then display the work according to where in the flow of the poem the title appears. These lines Tony has chosen conclude the poem. There is something of a traffic jam at the end, with many people falling for the last few lines, and I don't blame them; they are really evocative lines.

Six hundred glittering and genteel towns
gathered to be urban in plein air,
more complex in their levels than their heights
and vibrant with modernity's strange anger

Colin Michael Shaw, Eric Woods and Daniel Shown also are making art with titles drawn from this language, and Daniel's also is a set of variations. I love this stuff.

The Invitational is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 13 at The Luminary Center for the Arts, which is a really amazing space across from Tower Grove Park and just down Kingshighway from The Royale.

All work will be for sale on silent auction, with proceeds split three ways between the artist, the venue and Poetry Scores, a Missouri nonprofit that translates poetry into other media. After-party at The Royale.

Live Painting to Benefit SCOSaG

T. Renner, "Study After Francis Bacon #2," 2009, acrylic on paper, 7" x 5".

I'm going to be painting during St. Louis Fashion Week at an event to benefit SCOSaG on Thursday, October 15, at Lumière Place Casino & Hotels, 999 N. 2nd Street, in the STL. As I paint, you can place your bid, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit SCOSaG, on the final product, which will be more or less in the style of the two studies after Francis Bacon that are posted here. I know I'll be painting on canvas -- at least 2' x 3' -- but I'm not sure if I'll be using acrylics or oils.


T. Renner, "Study After Francis Bacon #1," 2009, acrylic on paper, "7" x 5".

For Dock Boggs

SOLD! T. Renner, "For Dock Boggs," acrylic on paper, 2008, 6" x 4". SOLD!

Dock Boggs was one rough customer (from Wikipedia):

In the mid-1920s, various record companies sent representatives to Southern Appalachia to hold auditions in hopes of finding new sources of talent. Around late 1926 or early 1927, Dock tried out at one such audition held by Brunswick Records at the Norton Hotel. Although he played on a banjo borrowed from a local music store and needed whiskey to calm his nerves, he played well enough to gain a contract to record several sides in New York later that year. He recorded only eight sides for Brunswick, however, as he deemed their payment sufficient for only that number.

Dock's records sold moderately well, and Dock returned to the mining areas of Southwestern Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, where he began to play at parties, gatherings, and mining camps. Around this time, Dock's brother-in-law, Lee Hansucker, who was a Holiness preacher and singer, began teaching Dock religious songs from the Holiness and Baptist traditions. Dock also learned a large number of songs from listening to Hansucker's vast record collection. By 1928, Dock was making enough money to quit working in coal mines and focus exclusively on music. He bought a new banjo and formed a band known as "Dock Boggs and His Cumberland Mountain Entertainers". At one point, he was earning three to four hundred dollars a week.

While Dock was experiencing a moderate amount of success, the life of a traveling musician often left him at odds with his religious neighbors, who considered such a life sinful. His wife, Sara, whom he had married in 1918, despised secular music and was opposed to Dock earning a living by playing music. The constantly moving mining camps were wrought with excess and violence, and Dock was consistently engaging in drunken brawls that often left him or an opponent badly injured.

Chicago Calling: Poems and Paintings

As part of the fourth annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival (CCAF4), which features Chicago-based artists collaborating with artists living in other locations, Chicago poet Bob Rashkow has written poems in reaction to two of my paintings.


T. Renner, "Not Even #4," 2008, acrylic on cardboard, 12" x 12".

"Not Even #4," by Bob Rashkow

In the shade of this blue, blue tree,
I shall lie down and take my rest.
Leave this peaceful scene behind,
and find the color of my mind.
I gaze through mirrors green and mauve,
to reach the sun’s embracing land.

T. Renner, "Not Even #3," 2008, acrylic on cardboard, 12" x 12".

"Not Even #3," by Bob Rashkow

not even that
patch of dry spot on which to land
i am swimming in aqua-blue agency
bypassing filmy ice caves
trespassing turquoise reefs of sea lines
not even -- not quite -- not yet there
my tail provides
a trail of silver
thread of light to stand off the dark grey track
ahead

Don't forget, too, that I've donated these paintings to an auction to be held on Saturday, October 10, to benefit NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri.

Fabulous at 40!: NARAL's 40th Birthday!

What: Come help NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri celebrate our 40th birthday! Come and enjoy dinner, entertainment, a silent auction, and a live auction with Ray Hartmann. Please RSVP at the contact phone number or email to purchase your ticket prior to the event at $100 per ticket, or at the door for $120. A portion of your ticket is tax-deductible Come out to help us celebrate!

Date: Saturday, October 10th

Time: Doors open at 6:00 p.m., ends around 10:00 p.m.

Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel 7750 Carondelet Clayton, MO 63105

Cost: Tickets are $100 prior to the event and $120 at the door.

Contact: (314) 531-8616 or jeff.farris @ monaral.org