The Wildness Within

South Dakota Magazine WILDNESS Book Review

The current November/December issue of South Dakota magazine reviewed our book and this is what they said on Page 32 the BOOKSHELF Section:

POETRY

WILDNESS: POEMS and PHOTOS (44 pp., softcover)

This book is a collaborative effort between longtime friends Charles A. Haislet and James E. Johnson. Haislet is a Minneapolis doctor of Medicine, while Johnson who enjoyed a 35-year career in art and design in Minneapolis, now lives on a Brown County Ranch. Johnson’s photos taken mostly on the Pete and Mikki Caspers ranch south of Hecla, served as inspiration for Haislet’s poems. The result, Haislet writes, ” is a book where the poetry and the image are so intimately connected that they create a third body that is more than either alone ”

A photo of a snowy trail ( pictured above ) led to the poem ” Cold Cabin ”

Day after day I awoke
in a cold cabin
lit a fire and
looked out at this road
Each day the same

But once after lunch
I walked out,
and walked and walked
and just kept walking

CH

Cover

Sample inside spread

This is the first Book published by WILDNESS B O O K S – our new publishing company.

We will be looking for other books on WILDNESS to publish in the future.

For books – $ 19.95 wildnessbooks@nvc.net

Jim & Charlie at their POETRY READING & BOOK SIGNING

October – The Red Rooster Coffee House – Aberdeen, South Dakota

OUR BEST REVIEW

” Jim, I love this book that you and Charlie have done! The photographs completely amaze me. I’m thinking of the baby ducks and that snowy road through the trees ( I have a big copy of that in my study) and the winter scene next door and the lone tree and the moon up above the prairie. Beautiful, beautiful ! ”

Robert Bly – Poet Laureate, State of Minnesota

WILDNESS with a Twist

I love to do collage and did a lot back in the 70′s and 8o’s – I had two gallery showing. One at my studio on Loring Park and another at Bob Thompsons’ Gallery next to the New French Cafe in Mpls.

Collage is so spontaneous and lightning fast. Its like a spark of creative crazyness. I started doing collage when I was working at the Walker Art Center, I had about two or three going on the wall that I would add to between design jobs. Now I do the same thing between photography, drawings, design projects, ranching and farming.

Heres an example of that creative crazyness. And I guess its that WILDNESS I look for in Nature in my photography

only here it comes from inside me – what a revelation ! Ah Hah

Wildness With A Twist – Photo collage and prisma pencil 11″x 17″ JimJ08

Prints available at – jamesjohnson@nvc.net

Caspers Ranch WILDNESS

Here’s some of the WILDNESS in my world on Caspers Ranch where I live in South Dakota.

The Land
The People
The Animals
The Plants all the Living
The Breathing
The Moving Wonder of IT ALL

IT takes my breath away

JimJ

Caspers Ranch WILDNESS - Photo collage & prisma pencil 11″ x 17″ JimJ08

Prints available at – jamesjohnson@nvc.net

LOST IN THE WILDNESS

My Mind Has Been Lost in The WILDNESS of It All,

I have been doing a series called me and my shadow.

Theres something about the shadow and how it changes with light-

Self Portrait, Lost in Wildness – Ibsen photo print JimJ08

Prints available at – jamesjohnson@nvc.net