Sojourns: Vision & Voice Collaborative Retrospective Exhibition

Dobree Adams & Jonathan Green

This collaborative retrospective exhibition of works in fiber and photographs intertwined with poetry considers dialogues of vision and voice in the spirit of haiga, the Japanese tradition of painting with haiku. The art of haiga is about the synergy of collaboration, the richness and depth of an added layer of meaning each work brings to the other. This exhibition centers on brief encounters and in-depth responses to living on their Kentucky River farm as well as to their travels.  These encounters have brought reactions to landscape, sense of place, colors and rhythms, ambience, architecture, culture, and design aesthetics as well as inspirations for new bodies of work.

In the spirit of haiga, consider how the poems, fiber art, and photographs are related, and how seemingly unrelated works influence or redefine one another.

About the Artists: Dobree and Jonathan have developed a deep artistic collaborative relationship over their 50 years together. Dobree has become not only Jonathan’s personal editor but also a major contributor in the publishing of many Gnomon Press books and books Jonathan has designed and/or produced for others. 

Dobree was born in Mississippi and raised in Lexington. After graduation from Wellesley College, Dobree became a junior physicist at Livermore Laboratory in California. After 13 years on the West Coast, she returned to Lexington in 1973. She began studying weaving with Astra Strobel in Berea and Arturo Alonzo Sandoval at U.K. and at Penland School of Crafts. She left an established scientific career of over 25 years to be a fiber artist and sheep farmer. For 20 years she raised prize-winning Lincoln Longwool sheep. Recognized as one of Kentucky’s major contemporary fiber artists she has been named a Craft Luminary by the Kentucky Craft History & Education Association. Her photographic work in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, primarily concerned with mountaintop removal coal mining, has been acquisitioned by the University of Louisville Photographic Archives.

Jonathan, a graduate of Bard College, was raised in New York City and lived twice in 1960s San Francisco before moving to Lexington in 1966 to work for the university press. He is a well-recognized writer and award-winning free-lance book designer, publisher of Gnomon Press, and author of 40 book publications.

Both have been awarded Individual Artist Fellowships by the Kentucky Arts Council and Jonathan’s Gnomon Press has received a Governor’s Award in the Arts.