Collaboration

Laura Madeline Wiseman (author) and Sally Deskins (illustrator)

Leaves of Absence: An Illustrated Guide to Common Garden Affection                                                                                                    Amazon Print

Red Dashboard LLC Publication presents a published collaborative project, Leave of Absence: An Illustrated Guide to Common Garden Affection–is art and illustrations. This collection is a lush look at the body and nature offers a rich pallet on the human form and these tall creatures that stand among us. Moving from fairy tale to children’s book, film representation to fact, it tells the love story of two trees as they fall from a growing forest into the outstretched limbs of the other. Wiseman’s poetry and Deskins’ body and tree prints and drawings weave a rich ecology of place to show us that even when we’re reaching away from what we know, our lives are actually becoming more entwined, binding us to what we love.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 1, 2016

Red Dashboard, LLC Publishing is pleased to announce its release of Leaves of Absence: An Illustrated Guide to Common Garden Affections, with poetry by Laura Madeline Wiseman and art by Sally Deskins. This is their second collaborative book. Their first collaboration, Intimates and Fools (2014, Les Femmes Folles Books) was a 2015 Honor Book for the Nebraska Books Award for Cover/Design/Illustration. Several of the artworks and poems in Leaves of Absence have been previously published in Kudzu House, Redheaded Stepchild, Hermeneutic Chaos, and Thethe Poetry.

About the collaboration…

With a lush look at the body in nature, Leaves of Absence: An Illustrated Guide to Common Garden Affection, Sally Deskins’ art considers the pallet of the human form within trees, the tall creatures that we stand among. Moving from fairy tale to children’s book, film representation to fact, Laura Madeline Wiseman’s poetry tells the love story of two trees as they fall from a growing forest into the outstretched limbs of the other. Together the art and words weave a rich ecology of place to show us that even when we’re reaching away from what we know, our lives are actually becoming more entwined, binding us to what we love.

 

What people are saying….

“Once there was the story of how fruit brought ruin and Eve’s temptation brought sorrow to the world.  In Leaves of Absence, Deskins’ and Wiseman’s collaboration brings us back to the garden.  We are immersed in the green shade of affection, brought to our senses through rich visual compositions and poetry that rings of a new found energy in the garden.”     -Karen Fitzgerald

 “With the strength of an oak and deep as its roots, the poetry of Laura Madeline Wiseman synchronizes gently with the sweet flow of the willow accomplished by Sally Brown Deskins. Nature inspires. Having read this lovely book I will never again look at a tree without feeling its beating heart within my own.”       -Sheila Grabarsky

“The growth of trees brings uninvited events. A pioneer spirit is needed to survive and remain hardy. Leaves of Absence: An Illustrated Guide to Common Garden Aff ection is a powerful grafting of poetry by Laura Madeline Wiseman and lush and delicate drawings by Sally Deskins. This book is a refreshing hybrid of natural history and emotional discovery.” – Barbara Roux

“A poetic field guide to trees and love, Leaves of Absence sparks rich memories of young days—passionate, unruly and fondly recalled. It laments the deep wounds we inscribe upon one another as we grow— fallen tree and heartworn lover alike. While the ordinary passerby does not know of their secrets, in this collection of poems and impressions, Magnolia, Rose, Oak and Catalpa tell their story to all who will lean in to listen.” – Mel Shapcott

Laura Madeline Wiseman’s recent books are An Apparently Impossible Adventure published by BlazeVOX [books] and Wake published by Aldrich Press. She has a PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in English and a MA from the University of Arizona in women’s studies. Currently, she teaches poetry in Writing in the Schools and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Nebraska.

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www.lauramadelinewiseman.com
@DrMadWiseman

Sally Deskins is an artist, writer and graduate student in art history at West Virginia University. She focuses her work on the perspectives of women in art, including her own. She has exhibited nationally, and published writing and art internationally. She is founding editor of Les Femmes Folles, an organization dedicated to women in art.

SallyDeskinsbyGregHiggins

Sallydeskins.tumblr.com

@lffsallydeskins

Red Dashboard LLC is a small press, publishing books of poetry and short flash literature: poetry (chapbook and full length), flash- short story collections, non-fiction, black and white artwork, and three ezines: Z-composition, Cowboy Poetry Press, and Annapurna Magazine.

reddashboard.com
@RedDashboard