Les Von Losberg

September 16, 2013

Artist’s Statement

Central to all of my work, the majority of which has been language-based , is the notion that we see the world through language; or, rephrased, language determines what we see. This is more than a matter of naming to gain control over our external environment, as the story of Adam’s naming of the animals in Eden might suggest. This is a matter of delving into the heart of language to engage it more broadly on both denotative and connotative levels, a matter not so much of symbolism as of simile and metaphor, of likeness and multiplicative essence. Equally important is the notion that language has its roots, not elementally in mental processes, but in the physical world, the world of the senses: language has its roots in the concrete, not the abstract. In this light, language is a way into what is, what was and what might be in our relationship with ourselves, with the world, and with ourselves in the world. Content: sensual, emotional, intellectual, psychological, metaphysical—is everything. And then there is the music, without which, for all that language is and does, there can be no poetry.

Les is a published poet and has had his art work exhibited in a juried show at the Katonah Museum in Katonah, New York; in the Soho20 Gallery in Manhattan, and at the Blue Door Gallery. Photos of two of Les’ art pieces have been published in Vol. 4 (Fall 2010) of the online journal of the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education. He has also performed as an acapella singer of original songs in poetry readings of his work, in presentations made at International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education conferences in 2011 and 2013, and most recently at the 2013 art event held at Saunder’s Farm in Garrison, New York. Copies of collections of my poetry are available on lulu.com (Correspondences, with Karen Morris, Paul Cooper, Gene Alexander and Merle Molofsky); The Blind Enamorato and the Mute Enamorata (and a companion volume: The Mute Enamorata and the Blind Enamorato), with Gene Alexander; and The Box Boy Poems.

Correspondence is welcome at lesv@owropinion.com.