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The Artist & The Poet Series

The Karl Stone Art Collection was created over the period of several decades by Karl Stone, uniquely named The Imagist. For many years, The Collection was known only to his family and a few close friends. Karl Stone and I met in the early 1990s and immediately developed a special relationship and friendship. During the summer of 2008, Karl introduced me to his art and stated that he was ready to share it with all who would find pleasure, inspiration, and reflective moments through his Visual Poetry.

When I saw the first few images that Karl shared with me, I was moved. They were beautiful and I immediately felt an inclination to express their beauty in words. Karl and I first discussed the idea of doing Greetings Cards and he selected a few prints from The Collection and he asked me to write some poetry to go with the selected prints.

When I first sat down to view the images and give expression to them something happened. In stead of writing Greeting Card poetry, as if to another person, I found myself expressing energies coming from the images themselves. Karl Stone had given each image a name and as I read the name and looked at the image the poet felt the deepest feelings of the artist and The Artist and The Poet Series came into being.

When Karl Stone first read the poetry, he was overwhelmed at how beautifully and how clearly the poetry expressed his relationship to the images he has created. We hope that you too will enjoy sharing in the wonderful journey that Karl Stone and I are taking together.

A.S. Umar Sharif, MA
Alufa [The Priest]