Art: Skrik wakker by Gary Freir
What We’ve Left
In this future we’ve created
all of the butterfly eggs are sterile
and the flowers have no scent. This will be
the last season of butterflies in this part of the world.
In the overgrown weeds and rushes, the rabbits that remain
can detect live mines even through mud and snow
have found safety in the derelict shadow of war
in these places men can no longer go.
About the author:
Holly Day’s poetry has recently appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Grain, and The Tampa Review. Her newest poetry collections are In This Place, She Is Her Own (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press), A Wall to Protect Your Eyes (Pski’s Porch Publishing), Folios of Dried Flowers and Pressed Birds (Cyberwit.net), Where We Went Wrong (Clare Songbirds Publishing), Into the Cracks (Golden Antelope Press), and Cross Referencing a Book of Summer (Silver Bow Publishing), while her newest nonfiction books are Music Theory for Dummies and Tattoo FAQ.
In the artist’s words:
Gary Freir. Qualified as a Graphic Designer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2004.
Currently working as a freelance artist and teaching art at Zonnebloem childrens art centre and Valkenburg Psychiatric hospital. As well as a local N.G.O., the Observatory Neighbourhood Afterschool programme, which provides educational and cultural programmes for youth at risk.
He has exhibited extensively both locally and abroad including institutions and galleries such as, Greatmore Studios, Idasa (Institute For Democracy in South Africa) and Durbanville Cultural Society, Irma stern museum, Battswood Art Centre, Cape Gallery, Stateoftheart gallery, AVA (Association of Visual Arts) gallery, Caledon Museum, Fordsburg Art Studios (Bagfactory), Institute of Training and Education for Capacity Building (ITECED) library, Alliance Francaise de Mitchell’s Plain, Alliance Francaise du Cap in Cape Town, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK), Edgemar Centre for the Arts in Santa Monica in the U.S.A, the Artscape resource centre, and the Spanish ambassador’s residence.
His work can be found in these corporate collections, private and government collections: Old Mutual art collection, Bertha Foundation, Peuple et Culture – Brest (France) BP South Africa (Cape Town) Joop van den Ende Theater productions – Holland Embassy of USA, Nairobi, Western Cape Department of Economic development; as well as private collections worldwide.
Artist’s statement:
“I believe that making art is a compulsive act of self expression that can only be realized through the collaborative act of creating and experiencing. Creating art for me is about constantly reflecting on my place in the reality. Using art to express a emotional and intellectual and tactile value, discovering how to distill and interpret my interaction with what surrounds me and documenting that personal relationship.”
