Art: Keeping the Sun by Lynne Buchannan
BONES IN A DRESS
I’m burnt with trickery in my bones
Wrapping its blessed deceit in the blood of my home
Bait and switch, the true tackle I thumb
Comes resiliently patterned
The dress I wear, undone
There’s luminous wax building its place around a plate
Where I hold all things suffering, the howl of my wait
I come close to see all the old wise and doubtful me
I could not see the paint
Wet and without warning
My heart rivals
But the bones hold her down like a hay needle in the gale
Here comes the switch under my brow
They flicker in dismay, they stare with a glossed sway
We whisper, we don’t scowl
My brace folds me in, the safe of my now
Hollow from my innards, my soul rests on the table
The plate of wax declares we are here
To a point of dry walls and a night coming near
Let the patterns of the shadows rest on my dress.
About the author:
Bethany Saint-Smith comes to writing from a career in songwriting. The Supreme’s Susaye Greene has said, “Bethany has the instincts of an aged American blues singer. Though she’s young, there is a tug in the heart when you hear her sing that grabs you and makes you wonder what she’s lived through. She reminds me of the earthy Odetta of 60’s Folk-rock fame, or of Nina Simone’s scathingly sophisticated perceptions of life.”
Bethany was born in Modesto, California. Her mother and her family came from Missouri and her father’s family came from Oklahoma, where Bethany’s Native American heritage comes through a pipeline of Black Seminole and Cherokee blood.
Bethany challenged herself to break into a music scene as a woman of color after moving to San Francisco, then to New York. Writing Southern-Rock style songs with her band, she pursued aggressively in NYC, sharing stages from The Stone Pony to Webster Hall and finally at the infamous club, The Bitter End. Bethany’s music has thrived in California, recorded in Chicago, and New York, and now has relocated to Buenos Aires, Argentina to focus on her arts and Motherhood. In her time there, Bethany has written a memoir attributed to the escapism of her dark childhood to the devotion and survival of her now. She’s currently working on various writing projects with a focus on her history of brawling racism and the riots of womanhood, surviving abuse.
Word Press:
Art: Keeping the Sun by Lynne Buchannan
In the artist’s words:
I am a contemporary abstract artist and I paint non-objective compositions with a focus on implied texture and color. Mark-making is a major component of my process. I scrape, cover, uncover, build and expose layers of paint. I use these marks to create conversations in my art as I explore the process and experience the joy of where the piece leads me. My hope is that the viewer joins the conversation and connects with the joy.