Grace Bauer
Call of the Wild
The girls in the hood have taken to howling.
They do it in packs running up and down the block,
each one hitting a different register.
Some glissando over the vowels, while others
stick to quick percussive yips and yelps.
A few sound a little like Alpine yodelers.
The other night I heard one coyote from her front porch
and, within seconds, from an upstairs window
across the street, a response came faint as an echo.
School starts back in a week, and this may be their way
of lamenting the end of their freedom or asserting something
feral in their natures—an inner force no human words can name,
something they sense the world may, too soon, try to tame.
Nativity
Oh, my God, he's having a baby! A boy's
still high-pitched voice carries over the fence.
His buddies howl with what sounds like glee tinged
with a bit of terror. Whoever he is moans
in his defense, I can't be. But You're old enough
to get pregnant, his tormentor warns, having figured out
age is a factor, though he's yet to get the finer details
of reproduction straight—or maybe he has and means
to test his victim, who continues to protest Am not! Am not!
The more desperately he whines, the louder the others howl
Are too! The pack attacking someone they sense may be too weak
to fight back for long. But what if he just gives in—
claims the power of a virgin boy to give birth?
Would that mean he has won this game? And what might that victory
be worth?
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| Anna Lee Hafer is a studio artist based in the Philadelphia area whose work is heavily influenced by such famous surrealist painters as René Magritte, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso, all of whom strove to build their own realities through small glimpses into a particularly confusing, but utterly unique worldview that dictates its own specific set of instructions. With references to the laws and physics of Alice's Wonderland, the artist challenges the audience's inherent understanding of perspective, reality, and universal order.
In her work, Hafer pours and layers paint to create dimension and texture, mixing different styles and colors onto each other until they produce a 3D effect. Through marker and pencil that create shadow, she further enhances these forms and separates them from the background. Heavier layers and thicker brushstrokes in the foreground of her work push the painting toward the viewer, whereas the thinner layers and small brushstrokes in the background, elongate the space and push away from the viewer. By juxtaposing interior and exterior elements, Hafer makes the audience question whether they are looking at something inside or outside.
For additional information, please visit www.hafer.work.
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