Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2012SYR08
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
Blue water-dragon
poster information
Description
Blue water-dragon
of riveted steel facets
Guard well our creekwalk.
When I decided to enter this, I walked around downtown, in Armory Square and Hanover Square, and I was looking for images that you would automatically associate with the city. In Armory Square, I noticed that sea serpent sculpture that I had seen many times before, and stopped and took a really close look at it. And it struck me, sitting just off the bank of the creek like that, how it was sort of a guardian.
That the artist illustrated a different guardian, I sort of like that. You know, it's funny, my brother is a visual artist and I've done a lot of collaborating with him, and that's sometimes how it ends up working. You have one vision, and you turn it over to an artist, and he creates something entirely different, and you just have to be OK with that. And I like the synchronicity of the sea serpent standing guard on one end of the creekwalk and the water tower on the other end.
For as long as I can remember, I've liked fantasy. I liked it as a kid, watching cartoons, and I really liked copying cartoons. I copied fantasy stuff, super heroes like Batman, and Japanese cartoons like Dragon Ball Z. I would draw them, put them in albums and collect them. Now when I see them I still remember drawing each one.
I got the image for the poster in my first reading of the haiku. But I had never seen the water tower, so I went to Franklin Square, and walked all over. It's a nice place, but kind of weird almost hidden. It's like a little town. There's a little park, and nice buildings. And it feels like one person designed the whole thing. It's so different from the rest of the city. I didn't feel like I was in Syracuse.