Three Questions for Bill Richard

What inspired your choice of genre / form for "Object for Art”?

I originally wrote this poem in a traditional stanza format. Then, partly just for the fun of it, and partly because I thought the poem would have more impact, I decided to make the poem look like what it was about: a nude figure drawing model. In my case, a male. :) 

What was your creative process for the piece?

Because I had been a figure drawing model for many colleges and artist groups, I thought I should write something about that work. Although there is teaching going on in the classroom as well as some banter, there are long periods of silence. I wanted to get inside that external silence and get into the mind of the model and his perspective of the dynamic between model and artists. The title is somewhat ironic. The model is an “object” on one level, and willingly and necessarily so. But he is more than an object, which is understood as the poem unfolds.

Turning the poem into an image was a rather painstaking process, partly because of my skill limitations on the computer! I would get things looking about right and suddenly the computer would re-arrange things and I would have to start over. I finally was able to keep things together and come up with a poem that at least resembles a human figure. It was partly luck and partly effort that allowed me to find just the right place and words to make the image look male. Making the image that specific also adds a bit of humor to the piece, I think. 

What is the significance of the poem to you?

When I was modeling many people were curious about what happens in the classroom and studio. The poem reveals something about what happens in the room, but more importantly what happens in the mind (and body) of the model. More broadly, it’s a reminder that there is usually so much more happening beneath the outward surface and appearance of things. And not everything is as it appears. 

Bill Richard works at three medical schools in the Phoenix area as a standardized patient, helping students develop their communication skills. His husband, Kent Carpenter, is an infectious disease doctor. Bill’s poetry has appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Red River Review, Illya’s Honey, the National Catholic Reporter, and elsewhere. He has also written three short and one full length play. Bill spends a lot of time as a docent at the Phoenix Art Museum, sings with the Phoenix Gay Men’s Chorus, paints watercolors, and dotes on his dogs Presto and Staccato.