Visual poetry, like its literary counterpart, is an expression not of the pedestrian and terrestrial, but of the sublime. One cannot reach transcendence, however one wishes to define that term (though in my contemplation of it I refer to the musing realm of the non-corporeal), without the will to experience an inner elsewhere. But the will itself is not enough to deliver us through that malleable passage from the mundane to the sublime. We need a guide. Like Dante who, midway through his life turned aside from the path on which he was set to venture downward and beyond the abyss of the river Acheron, we need our Virgil. How fitting that the poet’s guide was a poet guide. Poetry, literary and visual is a language the needs to be penetrated. It is metaphorical and thus is able to speak to that part of us that is in tune with the transcendent that is beyond all words and forms.

Artists have always been the seers of the transcendent, though few artists actually live up to that calling. Lynn Powers is one of those rare guides. Lynn’s paintings, while lovely on the surface, cannot be limited to such prosaic narration. We see in her works familiar images – a lotus, circles, hints of landscape, and mystical interiors – but these are not to be read as an encyclopedia of the artist’s personal icons. They are, rather, part of a metaphorical whole that connote the artist’s forays into our greater nature, and she has fixed her metaphors to canvas and board for those of us willing to be guided into that great unknown. Lynn Powers is our Virgil, if we would but turn aside and wander into her realm.

It was a great honor to invite Lynn to exhibit at the Triton Museum of Art. As curators, I and my colleagues endeavor to showcase artists of merit and value, with the hope that our audience will find them interesting and beneficial. In the art of Lynn Powers we got more than that. Visitors were taken on a lyrical journey, some quite by surprise. It is a journey I got to know well as I daily took the time to visit and absorb her work. Fortunately I had my artist/poet/guide to lead the way. Thank you Lynn.

Preston Metcalf, 2011
Chief Curator
Triton Museum of Art