Water Rising
  • Home
  • Read More
  • Who We Are
  • Experience Water Rising
    • The Watercolors
    • The Poems
    • The Book
    • The Music
    • The Video Installation
    • The Ekphrasis Project
  • What's New
    • The Latest
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Interviews
    • Reception
    • Watch
  • Contribute
  • Contact

Water Rising featured in Art Critical

11/7/2015

 
Water Rising is featured in Art Critical. Be sure to check out the comments by the esteemed poet and art critic Carter Ratcliffe at http://www.artcritical.com/2015/11/07/garth-evans-and-leila-philip-water-rising/​

Picture

Water Rising featured on The Humble Essayist

11/6/2015

 
Be sure to check out editor Steve Harvey's commentary at http://www.the-humble-essayist.com

Water Rising featured in Diagram

11/5/2015

 
Water Rising has entered the world of online literary magazines. Check out Ander Monson's very cool magazine DIAGRAM to see the poem "Shagbark" with the watercolor we have come to call "Necessary Angel" at http://thediagram.com/15_5/evans_philip.html
Picture

Newsletter 3

10/13/2015

 
Greetings Everyone,

Below is our third Water Rising newsletter. If you are not already and would like to become part of the Water Rising mailing list, send your email and name to leilaphilip@gmail.com. 

Enjoy!
Water Rising
A Collaborative 
Happy Fall! Here is the latest Water Rising news:
Books are in and now for sale on the website. http://www.water-rising.com
Buy Now
Please support our environmental mission by purchasing a book through our website (makes a great gift!) This is the only way that we can direct 100% of net proceeds from sales to environmental stewardship. The book is up on Amazon and Small Press Publishing, SPD, but if you buy the book through those sites, very little money will get back for us to donate.
 
The book is gorgeous. Everybody who has seen it is in awe of the stunning production. Thank you Marquand Books and especially Ryan Polich.
On the web we can’t convey the quality of the reproductions and the feel of the book.
Water Rising Book Trailer
We found a beaver at Ct. Audubon




We hope you have had a great summer and start to fall. We’ve been very busy. We hope you have a minute to check out the new Water Rising Book Trailer and Facebook page.


 
Visit Water Rising Facebook
 
On October 2, we did our first pre-publication event to generate funds for and conversation about environmental stewardship at the Ct. Audubon in Pomfret.

Proceeds from books sold that night are going to Ct. Audubon.


 
Official Water Rising Poster
Thank you for your interest and ongoing support.

Leila and Garth






​Water Rising receives Connecticut Regional Arts Initiative Grant

9/18/2015

 
Leila received a Regional Connecticut Arts Initiative Grant funded by the Connecticut Office of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts to create a Water Rising multi-media art installation, combining music, spoken word and projected image.

Water Rising Goes to Ireland

8/11/2015

 
In June, Garth and Leila accepted an invitation from the Irish artist, Ian Joyce to visit his art Center in Donegal in order to explore possible collaboration with Gaelic artists. Check out some of their photos. 

We Begin to Hear from the Art World

6/4/2015

 
A wonderful blurb and response to the galley of Water Rising has come in from art critic and poet, Carter Ratcliff.


Leila Philip's poems are intricately accurate about the look and sound of natural things, the grand sweep of the    seasons, and the elusively textured emotions that unite two people in a single enterprise.  She is a particularly subtle kind of realist.  Garth Evans, a non-figurative sculptor, is seen here as a watercolorist transposing the grand forms of his three-dimensional work to the flatness of paper.  Her representations and his abstractions do not, at first glance, seem to have much to do with one another. With attentive reading and looking, however, we begin to perceive in his imagery intimations of specific things--qualities of light, shifting structures of space--and, in hers, openings onto vast, unnamable matters of hope and the flow of time. Each is as much an abstractionist or a realist as the other, and Water Rising joins their work in a magnificent unity.

                                 --    Carter Ratcliff, Art in America

Newsletter 2

5/29/2015

 
Picture
Picture
Greetings Everyone,

Above is our second newsletter. If you would like to become part of our mailing list please send a note to WaterRisingArt@gmail.com.


Enjoy!

Another Gorgeous Blurb 

5/9/2015

 
A gorgeous blurb has come in from David St. John, another poet we greatly admire. 

In this exquisite collection, Water Rising, the sublime watercolors of Garth Evans and the lyrical meditations of Leila Philip reflect those tides that rise and course within our lives and through the natural world, in both cases tracing the indelible watermarks that have been left behind.  Whether grounded in our intimate daily experience or our artistic hopes and desires, the paintings and poems of Water Rising celebrate our insistence that, in the face of much darkness, we will continue to live along the shores of light and great beauty.

            -- David St. John, Study for the World's Body

Water Rising Makes Debut at AWP

4/20/2015

 
Picture
Water Rising made its debut at AWP in Minneapolis. Leila read at the New Rivers Press event on April 9th.


The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference & Bookfair is an annual destination for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers. The 2015 conference featured over 2,000 presenters and 550 readings, panels, and craft lectures. The bookfair hosted over 700 presses, journals, and literary organizations from around the world.  This year's AWP conference was held April 8-11 in Minneapolis, MN. 

Praise for Water Rising

4/20/2015

 
We are so grateful for the generosity of writers who took their time to read, look, and respond to 
Water Rising. 

In this exquisite collection, Water Rising, the sublime watercolors of Garth Evans and the lyrical meditations of Leila Philip reflect those tides that rise and course within our lives and through the natural world, in both cases tracing the indelible watermarks that have been left behind.  Whether grounded in our intimate daily experience or our artistic hopes and desires, the paintings and poems of Water Rising celebrate our insistence that, in the face of much darkness, we will continue to live along the shores of light and great beauty.

             -- David St. John, Study for the World's Body

The silent sound that Leila Philip's poems make on the page is reciprocated by the beautiful articulations of color and form that are Garth Evans' watercolors. Things happen, the poems and paintings both tell us. How and why are mysteries and should remain so, but the happenstance of the art forms, acknowledges a persuasive, crucial gravity -- open-minded souls at their careful work. 

            -- Baron Wormser, Poet Laureate of Maine, 2000-6


The paintings and poems of Garth Evans and Leila Philip “in-form” us, in the deepest sense, of what it is to live alongside, in relationship with, the structures and lives around us. In Water Rising, the ancient argument over which is superior—painting or poetry—is quieted at last. For here, whether taking form in image or in words, the zucchini rise like “zeppelins”: “the surprising weight/ of them lifting/ my basket.”

           -- Angie Estes, winner of the 2015 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award


Water Rising is a marvelous collaboration between an artist and a writer, in which lines and colors and words blend and merge to celebrate a small corner of the world. Garth Evans and Leila Philip teach us how to see a place anew,  “as if a secret were breaking open.” And now that we know the secret, which is that every place demands love and attention, nothing will ever be the same again.”
         
         -- Christopher Merrill, The Trees of the Doves

Water Rising is a book whose exquisite individual voices—its poems and watercolors—harmonize like wild singers in a healthy natural landscape. These threads of color and song weave a pattern of music the likes of which has not quite been heard before, a music simultaneously wild and domesticated, cooked and raw, improvisational and carefully notated, a music to be seen as well as simply heard. Although they worked separately, these two singular artists, deeply connected as human beings, have achieved a true collaboration here: this book is larger than the sum of its parts, deeper than the visions of its individual artists. This is collaboration as the best kind of marriage is collaboration: something beyond either life is made real here, made manifest. The book itself is a work of art, not a mere collection of artifacts. As such, it is truly a small miracle, a refuge for contemplation, the real world shown as magic, full of wonder and delight, and precious beyond our mere knowing.

         -- Michael Hettich, Systems of Vanishing

 
In their gorgeous creation, Water Rising, Leila Philip and Garth Evans present a way of working, a method of living, and an artist's model of how to shape-shift between intimacy and independence. I'm struck by the black and white power of the words (buildings and dwellings unto themselves) and the tender viscera of the paintings' extraordinary color and movement. And, too, how the poems lend shape to beloved terrain, while the paintings enact poetic knowing.  Both forms move deftly between their own inner and outer dimensions and together maintain a sustained and passionately engaged conversation.

          -- Lia Purpura, On Looking

 

Spring Greetings, First Newsletter

3/31/2015

 
Picture
Picture
We will sending out the occasional newsletter to our Water Rising supporters to keep everyone updated on our progress.  Above please find the first newsletter.  If you would like to become part of our mailing list please send a note to WaterRisingArt@gmail.com

Cheers!

AMERICAN LANDSCAPE: Second in Two-Part Series

2/16/2015

 
Walking Mountain Creative has just released American Landscape, the second video interview about Water Rising.

American Landscape is the second in a two-part series of interviews with Guggenheim fellow and published author Leila Philip and internationally acclaimed sculptor Garth Evans (Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, TATE..) about some of the ideas, themes, and motivations behind their collaboration, WATER RISING.

See below for the first video made by Walking Mountain Creative, Here & Now.


Click here to see the full video presentation from Walking Mountain Creative.

Picture

HERE & NOW: First in a Two-Part Video Series

2/12/2015

 
Picture
We are pleased to announce the release of Here & Now, the first in a two-part video series of interviews made by Walking Mountain Creative.

Here & Now is the first in a two-part series of interviews with Guggenheim fellow and published author Leila Philip and internationally acclaimed sculptor Garth Evans (Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, TATE..) about some of the ideas, themes, and motivations behind their collaboration, WATER RISING.

Check back next week for the second video!

Click here to see the full video presentation from Walking Mountain Creative.




First Design Proofs Arrive

2/4/2015

 

We are excited by the new look of our book. Ryan Polich, the book's designer, has done a great job! 

Check out the photos for a sneak peek!

Picture
Author Leila Philip holding new design proofs.
Picture
Our intern Jackie checking out the new design proofs.

Water Rising Video Series Coming Soon

1/28/2015

 
The first of a three-video series is set to launch in the near future.  The videos, created by Walking Mountain Creative, feature Leila Philip and Garth Evans discussing various elements of Water Rising.

Check back soon for the videos!

Water Rising Nominated for Pushcart Prize in Literature

1/28/2015

 
In November, Water Rising was nominated for Pushcart Prize in Literature. 

The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses series is the most honored literary project in America. The series, published each year since 1976, has showcased hundreds of presses and thousands of writers of short stories, poetry and essays. 

For more information on the Pushcart Prize, please click here.
Check out our Facebook post about this prestigious nomination.

Water Rising in the Putnam Traveler

11/10/2014

 
Picture


WATER RISING
BY NANCY P. WEISS

“Beavers are the Shiva of the animal world. Who knows how a beaver chooses where to make her pond?” The first line of Leila Philip’s poem “Water Rising” sets the tone for a collaborative experience between the reader and the creators of a remarkable work of art, crafted by Philip, an author and professor, and her husband, Garth Evans, a British sculptor with an international reputation. _

The couple wanted to work together to express through their art their responses to the world by using Woodstock as the jumping off point for reflections on change, nature, transcendence and permanence. They decided to push themselves to create outside their traditional media. Philip, a writer of literary nonfiction, would craft poems. Evans, a sculptor, would create watercolors.

“Garth and I wanted to do something together and push ourselves creatively. I had received a Guggenheim Fellowship to write and used some of that time to work on poems. Part of the fun of living with an artist is exploring another media,” Philip said.

We worked for twelve months on the theme of “here and now,” Philip said one late summer afternoon from the porch of the home she shares with Evans and their son. Noting with a sweep of her hand that a turtle lays eggs on their lawn every year and the wetlands near their home brought her in close contact with the beaver in the title poem.

Evans and Philip set out the rules of engagement for their project. While they were producing their work, they would not share it with each other. The poems would not be written to illustrate the watercolors or vice versa. When 12 months were over, they would bring their work together. “I didn’t go into Garth’s studio for a year,” Philip said, “I had to call to him from the top of the stairs. We had many funny moments negotiating ways to keep our distance.” At the end of the year, they invited a friend to come to their home where they laid out Evans’s watercolors and Philip’s poems on the floor of the studio. “Certain pieces went together as if by magnetism,” Philip said, “We knew we had something.”

“Water Rising” was born out of their collaboration. The watercolors next to the poems reinforce the texts. The poems, read before the watercolors, ground the images. Their idea of working in different genres on a common theme emerged as they selected twelve watercolors and eleven poems to create a book that is a work of art in itself, printed on watercolor quality paper, cloth bound and sewn on the edge. The result is a beautiful book that will connect back to the community that inspired the work.


Read More

Water Rising featured in the Woodstock Villager

11/5/2014

 
Picture

Two Woodstock artists collaborate in an expressive new work
Friday, October 24, 2014

WOODSTOCK — Inspired by the natural beauty of the Quiet Corner and to challenge themselves as writers and artists, Woodstock residents Leila Philip and Garth Evans have created “Water Rising,” an association of stunning watercolors and haunting poems.

The authors are publishing “Water Rising” and plan to use the book, together with music composed by Shirish Korde, to generate conversations about and support for environmental stewardship. Art has played an important role in the preservation of the American landscape and the authors intend for this project to draw upon that histo-ry to challenge and inspire audiences to a greater awareness of and discussion about our relationship to our rural spaces. All net proceeds from the book will go to organizations working to preserve the beauty and natural resources of New England, especially in the Quiet Corner.

Garth Evans is an internationally renowned sculptor whose experimental abstract works are displayed in major museums worldwide. Leila Philip is an award-winning writer known for her distinctive work in literary non-fiction. The couple spent 12 months pushing beyond their usual artistic genres to create works that evoke the distinctive rhythms and sense of place of rural northeast Connecticut. Leila wrote poems; Garth made watercolors. The resulting book generates an exciting new sense of how word and image can interact to create new meanings as it explores the ways in which we locate ourselves in a rapidly changing natural world.

Renowned composer Shirish Korde has engaged with Evans and Philip to compose music in response to the watercolors as well as to set some of the poems to music. The book will be released with performances of this new art collaboration, which will involve music, image and spoken word.

To learn more about this book and collaborative art project, see www.water-rising.com. Or stop by the Silver Circle Gallery in Putnam, where a display about “Water Rising” will be up through Nov. 2.

Radio Interview - WILI, Sept 29

10/22/2014

 
This past Monday in Willimantic, CT, Garth and Leila did a radio show with the managing editor of the Windham Arts Magazine, Melanie Brule. They discussed Water Rising and the process of making collaborative art. The radio interview will air at 5 PM on October 1st on Wili Radio, affiliated with the ABC entertainment network.

To listen, tune in to WILI radio (serving eastern Connecticut on 98.3 FM and greater Bolton on 97.5 FM).

​You can listen to the interview below.

Featured in Brief Encounters

9/29/2014

 
"Water Rising" the title poem has been selected by editors Judith Kitchen and Dinah Lenney for inclusion in the exciting new anthology of short literature Brief Encounters forthcoming from Norton, November 2015.

Water Rising in The Putnam Traveler

9/18/2014

 
To read a feature story about Water Rising written by arts writer Nancy Weiss, see the new issue of the quarterly regional newspaper The Putnam Traveler, see "Water Rising" pp  (14-15)
www.putnamtraveler.com

On view at the Silver Circle Gallery

9/15/2014

 
A display about Water Rising is on view at Silver Circle Gallery in Putnam CT 
October 1 through November 2nd.

Gallery Hours
Wed-Sat 11-5 Sun 12-4
(phone 860 928 2900) 
www.silvercirclegallery.com
Forward>>

    What's New

    All
    Events
    Interviews
    Newsletter
    Reception
    The Latest
    Videos
    What's New


    Archives

    January 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture