A Rendering of Soliloquies, Figures Painted in Spots of Time by Janet Kozachek

“In Kozachek’s art, cats and quilts, jewels and molecules fragment and scatter like dropped wordsfrom the mouths of models. Sketched subjects sit in the artist’s studio and tell their stories as she paints them: the feminine Kinnari birds with tongues like whips, la mente malevola, a migraine like a doomed mouse before the feline paw, memories of a mother who worshiped the mango bone. In poems, paintings, and drawings, the artist captures moments of deep listening, translated to word and image.”

–Sarah Wyman, Ph.D., Author, Fried Goldfinch, Sighted Stones, Professor of Comparative Literature, SUNY New Paltz

“Janet Kozachek’s A Rendering of Soliloquies, invites the reader into a brilliant synthesis of word and art. The interplay of subjects, the compact biographies, bring the reader to a mind of people watching in a park on a weekday afternoon. People living their lives in repose, each with deeper stories hidden in the lines and shadows accompanying each poem. But what is most striking is the ekphrastic nature of the work, the intricacies of each sketch, each portrait lends to more intimacy with each poem and draws deeper connections between subject, artist, and poet. The book is a feast for the eyes as well as the mind and brings a needed visual orientation to a world that needs both art and poetry now more than ever.”

–Lee Francis IV, Ph.D.,  Author, Eulogy for the Moon, Sixkiller and Ghost River, The Rise and Fall of the Conestoga, Executive Director, www.wordcraftcircle.org

“Janet Kozachek’s A Rendering of Soliloquies is a poignant collection on poetry and art.  Each drawing is accompanied by poem that tells the person’s story.  Whether it is pain, grief, or joy, Kozachek’s drawings and poems are like synchronized swimmers in a vast pool of lived experiences.  She brilliantly captures various stages of emotions through the interplay between art and words.  At a time when the world is in such flux from great loss and hurt, A Rendering of Soliloquies provides a still calmness in which the reader finds him or herself self-reflecting and meditating through beautifully written poems and drawings.”

–Yvonne Sims, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, South Carolina State University, Author of Women of Blaxploitation: How the Action Heroine Changed the American Landscape