How did you first come to visual poetry? What is it about the form that resonates?
A few years ago, on a photography website, someone initiated a contest to illustrate haiku poems. That's how I started illustrating other poets' poems, then I did it with my own poems.
It is very interesting how the two art forms intertwine, mutually support each other, emanating a plus of artistic emotion. This attracts me the most.
How does a visual poem begin?
When I first became more and more attracted to combining images with poetic text, a visual poem started from the poem. Since the poem does not have to describe the image, it was difficult for me to keep enough distance between the subject in the picture and the haiku. Now, I can easily look at a photograph and compose a poem that only intersects with the image to give it a new meaning. I use the image as a stand for the poem.
Do you see your work as a single, extended project, or a series of threads that occasionally weave together to form something else?
At the moment, this is my project, but I could always illustrate another kind of literary text, by any writer.
How do you see your visual art and visual poetry in conversation, if at all?
Any art form is a spiritual and emotional act of the creator. Occasionally, if I am asked for my opinion on a visual poem, I can only do so from a technical point of view.
Have you a daily schedule by which you work, or are you working to fit this in between other activities?
Every day I have an idea for a poem or two. Most of the time it takes me to find a photo that pleases me.
What are your favourite print or online literary journals?
Apart from Cattails Journal in which I am involved as one of the editors, there are: Ginyu Haiku Magazine, Entrevous Magazine, Failed Haiku Journal, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Ardea Magazine, Pan Haiku Review, and many others.
Who are some of the artists you have engaged with lately that most excite you?
The most recent visual artist who has enchanted me with his paintings is Stephan Daigle who proposed to illustrate a few of my poems. I look forward to our special collaboration.
Lavana Kray lives in Romania. Her work has appeared in many print and online publications, as well as in haiga exhibitions organized by the World Haiku Association in Japan and Italy. In 2015 this Association awarded her the title of Master Haiga Artist. The Laval Literary Society from Canada awarded her the André-Jacob-Entrevous Prize 2023, for a literary text (haiku) combined with an artistic visual. She currently serves as editor of Haiga at Cattails Journal (UHTS). See more of her work at https://photohaikuforyou.blogspot.com.
Some of her work appeared in the thirteenth issue.