Author / Robert Gerst

by Robert Gerst

Alana Locke: Sappho’s Moon (for Literary traditions)

Alana Locke

Willis Barnstone, The Complete Poems of Sappho, Shambhala Press

Writes Alana Locke (for Professor Norrie Epstein’s Literary Traditions):

For this work, I decided to use watercolor and gouache with details done in colored pencil. I thought these mediums could create the dreamy, soft qualities of the poem. Sappho uses words such as “luminous” and “shine,” so I tried to make a glowy effect around the moon. I decided to put on the face on the moon to personify it as Sappho did. The phrase “when in her fullness she shines” conjured the image of the moon smiling in my mind. I decided to add a figure sitting on a cliff to interact with the moon.

Is the figure Sappho writing about the moon? Does the figure see their love’s face on the moon? Is the figure in love with the moon itself?

by Robert Gerst

Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference: The MassArt team assembles!

 

Above, top row, left to right: Director of Academic Tech Services Meg Young,  Professor Robert Gerst, Professor David Nolta, Professor Lisong Liu

Above, middle row, left to right: Professor Joanne Lukitsh, Professor Jennie Rebecca Falcetta, Alexandru Zaharia, Kristina Rose Rea

Above, third row, left to right, Runming Dai, Joanne Ciresi Barrett, Aston Lyle, Administrative Assistant Candice Hilton

Above, bottom row: Anuska Suji, Professor Shou-chih Yen

Missing from this moment in Zoom but with us in spirit: Professor Marika Preziuso

by Robert Gerst

Cornel West on Love, Wuthering Heights, and Franz Schubert

“The basic problem with my love relationships with women is that my standards are so high — and they apply equally to both of us. I seek full-blast mutual intensity, fully fledged mutual acceptance, full-blown mutual flourishing, and fully felt peace and joy with each other. This requires a level of physical attraction, personal adoration, and moral admiration that is hard to find. And it shares a depth of trust and openness for a genuine soul-sharing with a mutual respect for a calling to each other and to others. Does such a woman exist for me? Only God knows and I eagerly await this divine unfolding. Like Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship in Emily Bronte’s remarkable novel Wuthering Heights or Franz Schubert’s tempestuous piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat (D.960) I will not let life or death stand in the way of this sublime and funky love that I crave!”

Cornel West : Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud