Megan Jacobs & Amaris Ketcham

As two artists working together, we combine our expertises in poetry and photography by writing haiku that is “printed” on cotton fabric using cyanotype. The vibrant blue hue of the cyanotype process links to two haiku about the monsoons in New Mexico--a season of relief and renewal. There is a connection between the uncertainty of these times and a desire for connection to essential rhythms and routines. During this time of social distancing, of anxiety about the potential futures, we almost feel as if part of a long, strange purgatory, not knowing how long isolation will last or whether we will individually enter a dark time or ascend out of it into some brighter future. Circadian rhythms build into daily routines and patterns that grow into the larger seasonal rhythms, the expectation of long summer days broken by the solace of monsoon downpours. These haiku explore the seasonality of New Mexico; they are layered with large-scale images and impressions of objects. We invite the viewer to celebrate the seasonal and fleeting beauty of the monsoon rain--just as you stop to appreciate it, the rain evaporates, leaving a saturated, vibrancy in its wake. In a historical moment of physical distance and dislocation, we aim to help reroot people in a sense of time and place through this artwork. Website, if you have one: http://www.meganjacobs.com and http://www.amarisketcham.com