“My first introduction to the Methow arts community upon relocating to Twisp was a reading of the Confluence Poets at Confluence Gallery, coordinated with the theme of the exhibit, “Reflections on Water.” The event spoke to my soul, and within not many weeks I was myself a participating member of the Poets and on the board of the Gallery.

I have been working with the camera for 40 years now, including a brief stint in the 1990s as an “expedition photographer,” but I have never previously exhibited my work. I am not fond of self-promotion, and given that my primary mode of artistic expression is via the written word (as poet, novelist, playwright, sports journalist, news editor, essayist, and film critic) I have been completely content to promote others’ visual art. For instance, I curated the photography of my late wife, Jennifer Leone, for 10 years and managed her sales and slate of group and solo exhibits.

When presented with the opportunity to curate my own debut solo exhibit for The Confluence, I decided to honor the wisdom of my poetic tribute, “After Mary Oliver.” Every poem “is a camel laden with straw,” I have written, in part learning that lesson from Oliver; the artist must be continually conscious of how much each work of art may legitimately bear, neither asking too little of the piece nor too much.

The aims of “Image and Word” are simplicity and directness. I present to you photographs and poems which to me distill my artistic, and perhaps spiritual, experience of the Methow.”

-Greg Wright

There is a complementary exhibit at the same time in the main gallery, 10 X 10: A Riot of Color.

DATES: Nov 17-Jan 8. LOCATION/CONTACT: Confluence Gallery, 104 S Glover St., Twisp, WA. confluencegallery.org, 509-997-2787.