Bandelier by Kathleen Frank
Kontagora
In Kontagora red chickens
peck the army barracks’
red clay soccer patch.
Barefoot village boys conjure dust devils,
hoofing crumpled balls
through your rooted legs.
A spindly one lingers.
He play-punches and nicks your camouflage cap,
paws you for daps-daps-daps, flip-phone selfies,
you’re going to need a new drill whistle. A scarlet sun slips.
The boy’s shrinking silhouette happy-bounces back
across the borderless pastures,
past shepherds and flocks,
AKs and flocks,
the copper light threading through the corkwood trees,
flashing in the breach between the earth
and the stump where his leg should be,
rawboned dogs baying in the trail
of his fading cheeps,
all saying:
I know more than you,
saying:
Whatever I shall do
I first received
without my asking.
About the author:
Berico Henry listened to The Leftovers soundtracks on repeat when writing “Kontagora.” His prior work appears in Storm Cellar.
In the artist’s words:
Santa Fe artist Kathleen Frank paints the Western landscape in vibrant hues, capturing light and pattern in complex terrains. Career highlights include: numerous museum and gallery exhibitions; High Desert Museum Curator’s Choice Award; Art in Embassies/U.S. State Department selection Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; work in permanent collections; and features in numerous fine art publications.
Having been an art teacher, woodcarver and a printmaker in my formative years, I emerged as a painter, joyously overwhelmed by color and searching for pattern. Color and pattern are everywhere, but the seeing and interpretation of them are different for each of us. Pattern in nature is primal to me – which fuels my desire to find a glimmer of logic in vastly complicated, confusing and tumbled landscapes. I do also seek out the vibrant hues in landscapes. My oil paintings begin with a saturated red orange backdrop. This is overlaid with the main imagery, applied with distinct brushstrokes of brilliant color. Hints of the red background peek through like a woodcut, creating subtle impact without drawing attention away from the primary subjects. Several times a year I travel throughout the Southwest, hiking and photographing vistas for future paintings. The goal is to catch the light and design in these scenes in all its strangeness and beauty. It is a lofty goal, but I find when the quest is shepherded with paint and brush it is a delightfully daunting adventure.