On The Town: There were pleasant surprises all around as poets and painters saw their work hanging side by side at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin on Tuesday night.
Rhyme & Resin paired 40 artists with almost as many poets to create new work which went for auction last Thursday. The overall aim is to raise money for Poetry Ireland, the national organisation for poetry in Ireland.
"I think it's a great likeness. It shows I'm cross," said poet Anthony Cronin, almost smiling in spite of himself as he looked at his portrait by artist Brian Maguire hanging over a poem from his long sequence called The End of the Modern World. "I'm cross about the state of the world," he added.
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill declared herself "an-shásta" with Shroud, two bronze statues by Catherine Greene in response to Ní Dhomhnaill's poem about "déithe an bháis", the gods of death. Her words were written into the base of the statues.
There was "utter artistic compatibility", said poet Dennis O'Driscoll between himself and painter Cecily Brennan, as the two chatted before the speeches. His poem, Reflection, inspired Brennan to paint a woman "looking into a dark pool at night", said Brennan.
Poet Tony Curtis posed happily with artist Sahoko Blake in front of their collaborative work. Blake's painting of a reclining nude was her response to Curtis's haiku called Moon: "when I wear my skin/ I pull it tight as a coat/ lie still as the moon".
Poetry Ireland chairman Des Geraghty, who admitted to writing poetry "go príobháideach" (privately), was equally happy with the bronze statue by Rowan Gillespie, entitled The Unsaid, which reflects on his poems about sorrow.
Poets Michael Longley, Gerard Smyth, Rosita Boland, Peter Sirr, Julie O'Callaghan, John F Deane and Enda Wyley stood beside painters including Patrick Scott, Hughie O'Donoghue, Madeleine Moore and Veronica Bolay.