The Reticence of Blue
By JC Alfier
April 15, 2024
April 15, 2024
JC Alfier’s (they/them) most recent book of poetry, The Shadow Field, was published by Louisiana Literature Press (2020). Journal credits include Faultline, New York Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, Penn Review, River Styx, and Vassar Review. They are also an artist doing collage and double-exposure work.
Artist's Note:
These pieces are special to me because oftentimes a color presents itself as a border to accent what I can’t quite identify, except to say they reflect or implicate subtle emotions, or even pathos. Veiled sensuality lies in red borders and colored lights, as in “Her Evening is Announced in Red.” In “The Reticence of Blue,” with its blue strip of construction paper, speaks to the femininity of the inset photograph, albeit obliquely. Sometimes I apply hints of color are with pastels chalk or colored pencils. Color can either accentuate or obscure what is not directly stated — like the colors of a noctilucent cloud at dusk. There is also some oblique cinematic influence upon my work, particularly from film noir and French nouvelle vague.