Eternity Passing features pictures by Kate Jordahl and the poetry of Sara Teasdale. They both turn to the beauty of Nature as comfort and metaphor. The organic and ephemeral character of Jordahl's Lumens is echoed in the simple and layered verse of Teasdale.In Eternity Passing, Kate Jordahl explores the hidden luminosity of plants in a dance at the edge of perception. Jordahl's lumen grids create a poetry of hue and radiance "What is our emotional connection to organic materials and their place in the world, culturally and geographically? We are of, by, and from the earth. This work examines our connection to Nature and Eternity by exploring the life energy within organic matter. Plants express a chemical aura that traditional photographic emulsions record."To create the Lumens, organic materials are contact-printed on light-sensitive paper for one to four hours. These prints are then scanned, made permanent with photographic fixer, and then scanned again. The goal of the Lumens is to (re)connect to the natural land through material involvement. And show the hidden language of plants in colors beyond mere seeing. "I am very interested in the grid as a form, the continuation of the frame, and the line from block to block. The grid lumens call up both windows onto the world and invite the viewer to complete the line from frame to frame. The increase in the unexpected as I work on these grids interests me. I lay out the found plants, then place the photographic paper in a grid pattern in a contact printing frame. The contact printing frame is then placed in the sun. I scan the resulting prints before and after fixing them, which gives me a mix of interpretations from the same materials. It is important to me to be open to both control and the role of chance in this work."The book blends Kate Jordahl's Lumens, begun with the 2020 COVID pandemic, with the poetry of Sara Teasdale written at the time of the 1918 Flu Pandemic. Sara Teasdale lived from 1884 to 1933 and was the first recipient of the prize for poetry that later became the Pulitzer Prize. Teasdale's poetry is as visual as Jordahl's pictures are poetic.
