The Tree of Life

<p>While living and teaching in Shanghai China I soaked up the city’s culture and history as a wide-eyed Canadian ex-pat. It was during this time that I formed the Visual Poetry team with three of my artistically-gifted students. Together we create art from a multi-cultural multi-disciplined perspective.</p><p>Art does not exist in a void; it has always been about connections – between the painter and the landscape; between the writer and the reader. Art reflects and shapes the society that creates it. Art is a process of continual interaction. Whether it is poetry or prose Visual Poetry reflects this by combining multiple styles and media into each piece.</p><p>As I adapted to this new culture and way of life these three students all born and raised in Shanghai became my most influential teachers and creative partners. </p><p>Cindy Fay Xie is currently a freshman at the Pratt Institute in New York. A talented  photographer and painter she captures the beauty as well as the harsh realities of life. Using her lens to critique the world around her she visualizes many of the frustrating aspects of the modern world with expertise.</p><p>Maggie Chen is presently studying at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Her photography captures natural beauty with a sublime style as she brings to<br />life the idealistic romantic side of beauty. </p><p>Julianne Vermilion at Wake Forest University in North Carolina is a superb painter and illustrator. Her eclectic visual-art styles blend flawlessly with the sometimes wild esoteric and psychological directions of the text. </p><p>Adela Fei and Sasha Sha recently joined Visual Poetry as leaders of the Mandarin translation team. Adela is currently completing high school in Tokyo Japan while Sasha recently graduated with honours from ShiXi high school in Shanghai. They merge their unique poetic styles to the art so that the text both reflects the English and resonates well in Chinese. </p><p>Together we form an artistic team we call Visual Poetry. Working together we collectively tell a story from our multicultural perspectives combining our talents to create one holistic piece of art. The goal of Visual Poetry is to blend East and West through a stylish mixture of rhythm and colour poetry and prose modern and ancient and romantic and real.</p>