Art and poetry celebrated at Clearwater Library's 'What A Wonderful World'

New Clearwater library exhibit

Visual art and written poems complement each other at the Clearwater Library pop-up exhibition "What A Wonderful World." FOX 13 Photojournalist Barry Wong reports. 

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Visual art and written poems complement each other at the Clearwater Library pop-up exhibition "What A Wonderful World."

"We wanted to do a show that was uplifting and beautiful, made people happy, made them feel better, like the good things in life and the good thing in people," artist Joel Morris said. 

Dig deeper:

Morris and fellow artist Barbara Anne Dunn conceived the idea for the show. Their pieces compose the visual arts elements for it. Morris dabbles in a variety of subject matters, from people, landscapes and even dogs.

"The joy of creating is just tremendous," Morris said. "When I'm sitting there drawing or painting, the rest of the world kind of disappears, and certain things just strike me as interesting. Maybe it's the form of a tree or a building can be very interesting, so I like to communicate that."

Dunn specializes in a watercolor Chinese-painting style that focuses on spontaneity. 

"It's intimately connected with poetry and calligraphy, which I love also, and you use calligraphic strokes in much of the painting," Dunn said. 

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Dunn, a lifelong poet in addition to artist, asked organizers from the Clearwater Arts Alliance if the exhibition could incorporate poetry. Local poets were contacted, and a handful of them have their poems on display with the art. 

What they're saying:

"With literature, you can communicate abstract ideas, but in poetry, you have the chance to communicate those abstract ideas in a very concrete and very emotionally charged form," poet Ayden Drake said.  "It helps deliver the ideas across, so if you want to talk about nature or beauty or freedom or human potential, you can do that with poetry in ways that you may not be able to do just with a painting, so they actually complement each other beautifully."

Morris pushed for the theme of "What A Wonderful World", using the song as the inspiration for the pieces.

"Each painting, both Barbara's and mine, and each poem brings out a different aspect of life and something that people might not think of," Morris said. "I hope it's an uplifting experience, gets them to pause and look when they leave here at the world again and see what's out there, see what is beautiful just in the neighborhood."

What's next:

The exhibition will be on display until mid-February. Click here for more information.