This is from my class blog– I teach “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves: Writing Creatively about Romani Culture” at FSU and my students are awesome. Check out their response posts if you’re interested. But the reason I am re-posting is because I found so many wonderful contemporary Romani artists and posted the links there to help my students with their ekphrastic poetry assignment, and I was so happy to find myself falling in love with artist after artist. If you want to take a look at the contemporary Romani visual arts and culture scene, it’s a good list to start from.
Katarzyna Pollok, Sara in a Snailhouse (2002). Acrylic on canvas, 60 × 80 cm, appeared in Signs Journal
“Artist Statement
Sara is the name of a saint worshipped by Roma in the south of France. She is supposed to have come with the Three Marys as their maid from Israel after the death of Jesus Christ. I took the story to show that we Roma have forever been regarded as coming from somewhere else, that we have always needed shelter, that we have always lived our vibrant culture, that we are still in hiding, and that we have always had our roots: India.In my artistic expression I travel across boundaries. This also means that I do not adhere to any fixed style or genre of art but “nomadize” through all the forms, traditions, icons, and images I come across in my life. My art is also both the means…
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jessica reidy 