How We Move in the Face of The Hollow Man
by Emily Calvo
Regarding her work, the artist says:
How We Move in the Face of the Hollow Man is part of a series based on the interactions of small silhouettes, and like other images in the series, it dropped into my head and begged to be released. While painting the Hollow Man, I realized the work was my visceral response to the 2016 election and the new president. Unlike other shallow people who walk through our lives, Trump gained power, which inspired me to feel desperate to decipher his motives; to discover his plans. However, investigation yielded only emptiness.
I didn't want the dominant character to resemble the president because he is not alone in his hollowness. Ironically, no matter how earnest we search to understand, being hollow means there is nothing to connect to. Yet rather than destroy them, it is wiser and more compassionate to work to dismantle them-which requires the diligent effort of many people.
Emily Thornton Calvo's poetry has been published in Coe College’s Colere, After Hours, Roosevelt University's Oyez Review and the Journal of Psychological Poetry. A co-founder of Chicago Slam Works, she was also a semi-finalist in the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Contest and was a poet-in-residence through the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Hands on Stanzas program. She has also been a featured poet at numerous readings and events in the Midwest. Calvo is also a freelance writer, artist and published author. Her first book of poems, Lending Color to the Otherwise Absurd will be released in October 2014. Calvo has a BA in Industrial Psychology from Loyola University and resides in Chicago, IL.
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