My Romance [Paperback]

Eileen Tabios (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2002

MY ROMANCE is a unique collection of writings that conflate poetry and the visual arts. Author Eileen Tabios presents essays on contemporary artists representing a variety of aesthetics, ranging over abstraction, minimalism, figuration, monochromatism, conceptual art and sculpture. Each essay is followed by a poem written by Ms. Tabios as a result of having considered and written on the essay's subject artist(s). The book features 18 artists including established names like Richard Tuttle and promising emerging artists like Marc Trujillo.

While each essay and poem may be read on a standalone basis, the juxtaposition of essay and poem allows the reader to discern part of the process through which Ms. Tabios wrote the poem.

Another significant dimension to MY ROMANCE is how Ms. Tabios uses her meditations on art to venture forth into other disciplines and topics. As examples, she uses her essay on Ulrike Palmbach to address urban culture, her essay on Santiago Bose to address political corruption, her essay on Christian Vincent to address Wall Street culture, her essay on Max Gimblett to address Buddhism, her essay on Susan Bee to address the flux of language, and her essay on Tom Friedman to address human mortality. She explains her approach as: "I write on art because it is a way to engage with capitalism, politics, culture, history, issues of identity and the environment. To write on art is like the writing of a poem: a way of engaging with the world."

Sculptor Miriam Bloom says about MY ROMANCE: "Eileen Tabios knows with all of her heart and soul that both poetry and visual art involve distillation, essence, mystery, and grandeur of experience. Her poetry is an analog for abstraction in the visual arts."

MY ROMANCE features the following artists: Santiago Bose, Max Gimblett, John Yau, Ulrike Palmbach, Ruth Liberman, Ed Moses, Paul Pfeiffer, Richard Tuttle, Christian Vincent, Stephanie Syjuco, Carmen Lomas Garza, Susan Bee, Tom Friedman, Marc Trujillo, Joseph Marioni, Miriam Bloom, Venancio "V.C." Igarta, and Carlos Villa.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A poet, fiction writer, editor and essayist, Eileen Tabios is the author, editor or co-editor of nine books and a poetry CD. Forthcoming in late 2002 will be a selected prose poem collection (1996-2002)entitled REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE (Marsh Hawk Press, New York). Her awards include the 2002 Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize,the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award for Poetry, a Witter Bynner Poetry Grant and the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles National Literary Award. She is a budding grape farmer in St. Helena, Ca.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Giraffe Books (March 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9718832629
• ISBN-13: 978-9718832622
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,663,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expansive and generous art writing, September 23, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: My Romance (Paperback)

Eileen Tabios offers a wonderfully interdisciplinary way of looking at art, understanding visual art both as pure experience and as metaphor: for language, poetry, process, cultural politics, religion, and history.

Art , being a creative act, should be written about creatively! Not within a bubble of formalism or theory, but in relation to other spheres of existence, from the most quotidian chores to our dreams and fantasies.

Her approach to considering art reminds the reader that there is quality in all of our experiences -- that even international banking can relate to the creative process! Certainly poetry, music, and dance are all natural fits with the visual arts, and sometimes it's easy to forget that.

And I especially enjoy when Tabios is "naughty," playing with the inherent irreverence and absurdity in Tom Friedman's work! One would never find an essay like that in an art magazine!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She Stoops To Ravish, April 15, 2002

By 

reme grefalda (Arlington, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Romance (Paperback)

MY ROMANCE (Giraffe, 2002) is more than a collection
of essays on Art. Each of the 16 critiques ends with a
"related poem" by the author, a carry-over so to speak
of the emotive themes in each artist's exhibit
allowing the reader a transition to ponder over the
artist's works.

Eileen Tabios claims that like Art, poetry is a way
for her to engage with the world-- "with capitalism,
politics, history and issues of identity." She engages
the reader to be involved in and curious about
Philippine politics, history and the Filipinos'
evolving process of decolonization.

This book IS Romance with a capital R, a wild fling
24/7 by a poet-artist vibrant with epiphanies after
steeping herself in each featured artist's soul/sole
intent of lifetime devotion to Art.

What makes MY ROMANCE a unique experience for
me is the way Tabios introduces the reader to a
variety of poets, whose pieces articulate and give
meaning to the artist's thematic attempts. Surprise,

surprise, this too is a poetry anthology bound in a
pink(!) soft cover! Toting the book with me on the
Metro, I self-consciously cover the title. Far be it
for me to be seen as a blooming romantic; not when the
commuting public's concern is on more serious and
pragmatic matters, i.e., should I trade in my car for
this year's model. But my sighing gives me away.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars NO, NO, NO, BADLY WRITTEN, September 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: My Romance (Paperback)

I had high expectations for this book, and was terribly disappointed. It is poorly written. The author has a pretentious way of writing.