THE SWAN BOOKS 

The SWAN Project is an investigation of the swan trope in myth, music, literature, art, philosophy, alchemy, dance, and politics. It is a recognition of the particular hold the image has had on the human imagination over time. As a dimensional endeavor it continues to evolve, producing 1) new visual artwork; 2) a somaesthetic practice that links imaginal imagery, embodiment, and poetic perception to the cultivation of empathic experience; 3) performance installations; and 4) development of global friendships and collaborators. 

Performance installations I – III address the image of the swan found in Alchemy: I – Coniunctio (2014); II – Rubedo (2015); III – Hieros Gamos (2015). My 4th performance installation, Solitude, acknowledges poet William Butler Yeats’s sense of the swan as ‘the solitary human soul.’ The 5th performance work, Black Swans, an opera poem, initially produced with a diverse cast of players in Reno, Nevada, is envisioned as a modular work designed to be re-imagined anew with the stories, musics, and dance of worldwide communities. 

With each performance, audience members are given a published chapbook of my writings, though the books are also available to the public for purchase  (https://www.apoeticbody.com/store/). The literary content attends to my aesthetic philosophy, thoughts on poetic life, scholarly research, personal photographs, memoir, and bricolage that subtly weaves a living continuity. As the SWAN works are all aesthetic collaborations (partnerships), each book cover is graced with the work of visual artists from around the world. Book V is in progress. It is my intent to continue these books,–-contingent upon interest and support.

The Swan Books