Portfolios > The Room

The Room is a boxed suite of twelve woodcuts with chine collé. Each image pairs with a line from Mark Strand's poem, The Room. This collaboration between myself and U.S. Poet Laureate Strand was co-published by Flatbed Press, Austin and printed there by Tracy Mayrello with the assistance of Cordelia Blanchard.

The Room
It is an old story, the way it happens
sometimes in winter, sometimes not.
The listener falls to sleep,
the doors to the closets of his unhappiness open

and into his room the misfortunes come --
death by daybreak, death by nightfall,
their wooden wings bruising the air,
their shadows the spilled milk the world cries over.

There is a need for surprise endings;
the green field where cows burn like newsprint,
where the farmer sits and stares,
where nothing, when it happens, is never terrible enough.

Mark Strand, The Room, woodcut, Flatbed Press, It is an old story the way it happens
24 x 21 inches
Mark Strand, The Room, woodcut, Alice Leora Briggs, chine colle, sometimes in winter, sometimes not
21 x 24 inches
Mark Strand, The Room, woodcut, Alice Leora Briggs, chine colle, the doors to the closets of his unhappiness open
21 x 24 inches
the listener falls to sleep
24 x 21 inches
and into his room the misfortunes come
24 x 21 inches
Alice Leora Briggs, Mark Dtrand, The Room, woodcut, chine colle, death by daybreak, death by nightfall
woodcut print, books, chine collé, Mark Strand's poem, The Room, Alice Leora Briggs, their wooden wings bruising the air
24 x 21 inches
woodcut print, bird, chine collé, Mark Strand's poem, The Room, their shadows the spilled milk the world cries over
21 x 24 inches
Alice Leora Briggs, Mark Strand, woodcut, chine colle, Flatbed Press, there is a need for surprise endings
24 x 21 inches
Alice Leora Briggs, Mark Strand, woodcut, chine colle, Flatbed Press, the green field where cows burn like newsprint
21 x 24 inches
woodcut print, inmate of Juarez asylum, Mark Strand's poem, The Room, where the farmer sits and stares
24 x 21 inches
where nothing,when it happensis never terrible enough
21 x 24 inches

contact me at: aliceleorabriggs.art@gmail.com