Kelly DuMar is a poet, playwright and workshop facilitator from Boston. Author of three poetry chapbooks, ‘girl in tree bark’ (Nixes Mate, 2019), ‘Tree of the Apple,’ (Two of Cups Press), and ‘All These Cures,’ (Lit House Press).
DuMar’s poems, prose and photos are published in many literary journals including Bellevue Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Crab Fat, Storm Cellar, Corium & Tiferet. Kelly serves on the Board of the International Women’s Writing Guild (IWWG), and produces the Bi-Monthly Open Mic Writer Series attended by women worldwide.
Wetlands Winter, Charles River images are inspired by the artist’s daily walks in nature, in every weather, along the rural Charles River and wetlands where she live.
My images are never staged. I photograph what I find as I find it. These plants and other natural occurrences of my habitat serve as “maps of consciousness” for me. An image seems to pull my interest toward it, as I’m walking in a trance-like state, an idea inspired by Thoreau, who said in his writing about walking: “I must walk more with my free senses…”
A wonderful part of the experience of these photos for me is in the making: the sensory, bodily encounter I have with elements of natural habitats, the way nature is imprinted on my knees as I bend down to get close to the earth from which these images spring. Each photo composes an emotional experience and works similarly as a poem does.
I take a picture because I am awakened by an unconscious call to notice something in my daily habitat and let it be expressed through me; I feel something in the here and now. My images want to communicate into the breath and throb of a moment of enlightenment: an integration from unconscious knowing. This winter wetlands collection illuminates the organic, seasonal cycle of breakdown, renewal and regeneration.
Curious to learn more about Kelly DuMar? Visit her website at kellydumar.com.
