Susan Isla Tepper is a twenty-year writer and the author of 12 published books of fiction and poetry and 2 stage plays.

Her satirical Novel concerning the pandemic is titled OFFICE and was just released by Wilderness House Press.

She also previewed her play THE CROOKED HEART concerning artist Jackson Pollock, in his later years, at the Irish Repertory Theatre in NYC on October 25, 2022. http://www.susantepper.com

The Artist’s Model

By Susan Isla Tepper

Barcelona
in summer’s heat
seized
expanding / contracting
the eaves, sloped
where I stood
posing
interminably—
‘Til you barked Madeleine!
Tearing off your shirt
throwing it
sweating pungent streams.

Exhausted, I stretched my neck
glanced at the picture
Blue: walls ear hair
a breast showing
blue tint, unfinished.
Would there be a proper nipple
for my yet uncovered
secret, the child growing.

Toasting to absinthe ‘the green fairy’
you gulped down relentlessly
toasting Paris. To Paris!  Always Paris.
Never, me.

I sipped ‘til you
pushed me toward the cot.
The heat choking
crushed under your weight.

After, more absinthe consumed.
I studied the split in your eyes:
Your rival, Matisse, his soul horned in
at your invitation
Picasso—
your obsession—
created his presence
in your right eye, armed
hovering ready to spring.

The other eye somehow steady.
Assured, appraising, cocky as
a chimney sweep
going about
conducting his dirty business.

Picasso
great storm of the century
landing everywhere
paint
pooling under the eaves
an eternal sea
roiling—
I picture you
buried beneath
an avalanche of color.

Digby Beaumont, Pablo Picasso, acrylic on paper

Digby Beaumont is an English artist. His work has been published extensively in collaboration with writers of fiction, poetry and music. He works on portraits, still lifes and landscapes. He also has a series titled I Don’t Know What Came Over Me, a whimsical and poignant take on the theme of what it is to be human. He works with acrylic paint, mostly on canvas board, and pen and ink on paper. Digby is also a widely published writer.