Seeking: Poetry and Prose Inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green

The best art has the uncanny ability not only to give pleasure to those who view it but also to inspire a desire to respond. The best artists are a force for all art, and renowned Gullah artist Jonathan Green’s work has inspired a wide range of responses from artists around the world. In Seeking we see how Green’s art prompts works of poetry, prose, and memoir. Seeking’s evocative power lies in the intimacy of this dialogue, which speaks to the shared sense of landscape and culture that Green stirs in these writers, ranging from close friends and fellow artists from his home state of South Carolina to nationally established authors who regard Green’s work as an important cultural institution. The contributors have allowed themselves to be challenged by Green’s brilliance, his honesty, his intense spirituality, and his deep love of people. Inspired by a personal quest toward induction into a spiritual community, Green’s painting Seeking is rich with history, myth, and truth. The writers in this collection have found fertile ground for their own responses to Green’s work, and the result is an engaging and enlivening chorus of celebratory voices.

Edited by Kwame Dawes and Marjory Wentworth, this collection features eleven colour paintings by Green in addition to a preface on the history of the project, information on the painting Seeking, and an artist’s statement.