Book Description

About the Exhibit: This is a collaborative print exhibit with visual artist, Byron Sletten and Pulitzer Prize winning US Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser. This collaboration reflects some common ideas about using familiar references to address human truths. It's accessible, approachable and yet as C. G. Jung would say, archetypal. Ted Kooser is known for his conversational style of poetry. Critic Dana Gioia, in his book Can Poetry Matter?, describes Kooser’s style as “drawn from common speech, with subject matter common to the Midwest.” Kooser’s early and contemporary work involves both troubles for Mid-westerners, and observations from everyday life. This could describe Sletten's approach as well. His work incorporates objects that are lifted out of everyday experience – a glass jar, a rowboat, an old steam iron, a pair of nurse's shoes... they suggest a story that connects to larger issues in life and relationships. A Little Background: Byron Sletten has exhibited in over 40 national and international shows over the last 30 years. This work is created using 3D imaging software to create realistic renderings – duplicating the physics of light with computer calculations. There is a video discussion. In 2005 Ted Kooser received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book "Delights and Shadows.” He was named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the Librarian of Congress to serve a term from October 2004 through May 2005. Then in 2005 was appointed to serve a second term as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. There is a video on page 17. Both Sletten and Kooser lived in Lincoln Nebraska and graduated from the U of NE, and coincidentally also grew up in Ames, Iowa. Although they never crossed paths then, in 2018 they connected and found common creative interests. (All works in exhibit are archival digital prints on paper, approximately 32” x 54”)