Calling Out After Slaughter
I'm excited to announce that I was graciously asked to create the cover art for M. Carmen Lane's forthcoming new book of poetry that will be released next month on August 2nd. She had initially asked if I would be interested in doing this a couple of years ago, and when the time came, I was ready! This image was created in response to a few of the poems she sent me ahead of time for review. For whatever reason, I kept coming back to the idea of "corn" from the poems and decided to do some sort of depiction of Robohontas as a version of "Corn Maiden."
So what we ended up with was Robohontas wrapped in corn husks and then bound with both red twine and a thin leather lace. I tucked a dentalium shell in there for good measure. I tried a variety of backgrounds, but the one that was chosen is simply masa (corn flour) with my handprint in it. Once the book is officially released I may end up sharing some of the other photos here on the blog as well, but I've been holding them back for the moment, even though I really love them!
The book is titled Calling Out After Slaughter and if you are interested in poetry and/or queer/gender/race issues, you may want to pick up a copy ($12 -- just click on the book title to purchase). More on the author: "Carmen Lane (African-American/Mohawk/Tuscarora) is a poet and cultural worker. Carmen's work has been published in Red Ink Magazine, The Yellow Medicine Review and is a contributor to the Lambda Literary Award nominated anthology Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature."
