Ars Poetica Print Collaboration!
As a special collaboration with poet Tania Asnes, we worked together to create a new print in honor of spring!
Storytime
In December 2022 — I happened to meet Tania at my company’s end of year Winter Party. She had been hired as a typewriter poet on demand (through Ars Poetica).
I had the opportunity to request a haiku about anything — and as a fun experiment I asked if Tania would be able to write a haiku based on my art, given only the title and photo of my print.
Using “An Unbearable Weight” as the inspiration — from the title and image, within a few minutes Tania wrote this beautiful haiku.
“mountainous fire
transmuted from liquid streams
who knew blue could burn”
I loved her interpretation of my print so much, I asked for her to do it again this time using “SILENT RAGE” as the inspiration.
“a thousand spiders
weave a pulsing cocoon
for the scream in my mind”
I was an immediate fan of her poetry, and followed her instagram account to keep in touch.
Valentine’s Day 2024
In 2024 for Valentine’s Day, Tania posted on Instagram that she was doing a promotional “anti valentines” day haiku for charity donations.
I was curious for her to interpret my print “Lost In Translation” — featuring a man and a woman facing away from each other, wearing similarly patterned clothing as a thread between them floats above.
“That’s not what I meant
you insist on hearing the
worst version of me”
I loved her haiku interpretation of “Lost in Translation”!
Fast forward to 2025…
In early February 2025, I messaged Tania to ask for another haiku interpretation for my print “Homecoming” — featuring two figures sharing an intimate moment, with the silhouette of a man embracing a girl who is completely saturated in blue.
“I become ocean
the sturdy shore of your chest
drops coalescing”
This haiku interpretation may be my favorite (although I love them all). As a result of this most recent haiku request, Tania suggested we revisit the idea of doing a collaboration together!
Our first collab!
Given the timing with Spring around the corner, we decided to do our first collaboration in honor of the new season!
Except this time, instead of Tania interpreting one of my prints into a haiku — I would be creating a print inspired by her poetry!
Tania sent me a haiku inspired by her early childhood memories of seeing crocuses poking through the snow to mark the beginning of spring.
“Flickering to life
the first resplendent crocus
seems to melt the snow”
I then created the print and art based on her words — in the end (after much experimenting) we landed with 3 color offerings for the “Crocus Sprint” print.
Over two years after our first meeting, we finally arrived here with “Crocus Spring”. It was such a pleasure to work with Tania! So grateful for the chance to combine our art mediums and create something special.
Many thanks to Tania and Ars Poetica for this opportunity. Hopefully this is only the start of many collaborations to come!
- Helen <3
