Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2003SYR02
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Poem Inspiration Location
Thornden Park Roses
poster information
Description
Thornden Park roses
remind campus revelers
of simpler pleasures
When I first came to Syracuse, in the late 1960s, I was living off Ackerman Ave., an area where so many Syracuse artists start out, so I would have occasion to drive through Ostrom Ave.
I've always loved the rose garden there. It looks so sedate and lovely that you could picture ladies in garden party dresses from the 19th Century congregating there. Then you have the dorms, the fraternity houses, and, what I saw around Ackerman, the party scene of that whole area.
I always thought the juxtaposition was a little bit of a hoot. But I thought it was a nice one, because it acknowledges that there are moments when students do need peace and introspection, which gardens are always good for.
The first thing I did was go directly to the site. It's very enjoyable. The roses are beautiful, and it was perfect timing, because they were all in bloom.
I always try for a sense of beauty and grace in my work, so this was a good poem to work with. The words spoken through the poem were words that I feel I've spoken through my paintbrush. So I immediately felt a connection.
The girl there, by that delicate rose, evokes a sense of purity. Innocence, in a way, is what I was trying to capture. That's the message that the poem seemed to emit.
I feel I've visually communicated that. I just wanted the piece to be as sweet as the poem, and as sweet as the garden itself.