Poem Objects: Creating Visual Poems

I live in North Andover, Massachusetts with my wife, Barbara Hyle, and a hamster named HRH King Bernard de Jambon V (Barney).

I am, first, a poet. I write, and I create visual “poem objects” that, I hope, convey messages or feelings with visual poetics: analogy, metaphor, rhyme and alliteration of color and shape, juxtaposition, and things left unsaid.

I am self-taught and self-represented. I am happy to be considered an “outsider artist” or part of the “art brut” genre. These are terms used to label artists to help with marketing or to aid in Internet search results. If it helps us connect, I’m fine using them. In the end connecting with art and artists is a personal journey immune to and from labels.

I believe that art either affects us or it doesn’t. Our reaction to art needs no defense or explanation. Not liking a work of art is perfectly acceptable. We explore. We discover. We winnow. A poem or a piece of art needs to hit us somehow. To make us windmill an arm like Pete Townshend. It's what drives us to create and to collect.

I believe that any form of art is only successful if the work turns a common item or idea into an uncommon one, creating not only the poem or poem-object, but some form of emotional power chord. Or sometimes just the sense—or possibility—of that kind of alchemy.

My poetry work has appeared in The Aurorean, Meanie Magazine, Recursive Angel, 15 Credibility Street, The Hudson Street Review, The Pictish League, and the Blood Pudding Press.

Her Unusual Journey won first place in the annual Lawrence (Massachusetts) Eagle-Tribune Poetry Contest (1999).

Beach Glass, which first appeared in the Aurorean, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009.

My first book of poems, Chatter in the Canopy, was published in Jan 2009 and is available from Etsy and Amazon.

Affiliations:
The International Society of Assemblage and Collage Artists
Newburyport Art Association (MA)
The Andovers Artists Guild (MA)
East Mill Art Space (North Andover, MA)
Arts Institute Group of the Merrimack Valley (MA)
Academy of American Poets
New England Poetry Club
Listed Poet in the Poets & Writers Writers’ Directory

Events / Exhibitions / Awards

Solo Shows:
• Jeff Roberts: Surfaces 2012-2013. UForge Gallery, Jamaica Plain, MA. July 18-Aug. 18, 2013
• Jeff Roberts Poem Objects: Assemblage, Collage, and Boxes 2011-2012. Gafney Library. Sanbornville, NH April 1-30, 2012

Group Shows:
• Newburyport Art Association – 2014 Regional juried Show
• Arts Institute Group of the Merrimack Valley - Art in the Orchard. Jun 7&8, 2014.
• Art at the Gafney – Gafney Library Sanbornville, NH June 2014
• Arts Institute Group of the Merrimack Valley – Art at the Library. Oct-Nov 2013.
• REM: Uforge Gallery, Jamaica Plain, MA. Aug. 1-31, 2013
• North Conway Public Library Annual Book and Art Sale. July 13 & 14, 2013
• Arts Institute Group of the Merrimack Valley - Art in the Orchard. Jun 8-9, 2013.
• Contemporary: UForge Gallery, Jamaica Plain, MA. June 1-30, 2013
• Textures: UForge Gallery, Jamaica Plain, MA. January 3-27, 2013

Honors | Awards:
• Judge’s Choice Award in Mixed Media – Art at the Gafney 2014 – Selected by Matt Wyatt of the Rochester N.H. Museum of Art (Hypotheticals: collage)
• Judge’s Choice Award in Mixed Media – Art at the Gafney 2014 – Selected by Matt Wyatt of the Rochester N.H. Museum of Art (Fire in the Desert III: box assemblage)
• Judge: Mount Washington Valley Arts Association. Art in the Park. Aug. 2013 & 2014
• Finalist/Winner: To the power of n: When n Equals 12. International Collage Project. http://tothepowerofn.joellambeth.com
• 2nd Place: Arts Institute Group of the Merrimack Valley – Art at the Library. Oct-Nov 2013. (Take 5-Thanks Dave: collage)
• Honorable Mention: Arts Institute Group of the Merrimack Valley - Art in the Orchard. Jun. 2013 (Cattails: box assemblage)


Gallery Representation:
Sisters We Three Gallery, 57 Pleasant St., Newburyport, MA 01950