Containers: a Collaboration Between Poet Christine Stewart-Nuñez and Artist Julia Franklin

Stacked, by Julia Franklin (USA) contemporary

**

Ringed, by Julia Franklin (USA) contemporary

**

Discarded, by Julia Franklin (USA) contemporary

Christine Stewart-Nuñez​, after art by Julia Franklin

Containers began when visual artist Julia Franklin and literary artist Christine Stewart-Nuñez met in preparation for Poetry Palooza, and event held at Main Frame Studios in Des Moines, Iowa in 2023. The aim of playful experimentation brought both women together initially, but learning about each other’s books and exhibitions cemented their commitment to ongoing collaboration. Through conversation, both artists agreed on a theme—containers—a concept that also informed formal constraints. Stewart-Nuñez identified containers made from different materials and found sources to serve as erasures, including manuals, blog posts, and magazines. Franklin responded to the erasures with imagistic multimedia pieces that she composed in Sucrets tins. In the third round, Stewart-Nuñez wrote another set of poems using the physical frame of the tins and the images Franklin created inside as inspiration. Containers represents a departure for both artists. Franklin, who had been producing large-scale exhibitions, made distilled compositions; Stewart-Nuñez, who had been writing lyric poems and essays, opted for erasures and a series of palindrome poems. Currently, the pair has made nine sets of works. 

Christine Stewart-Nuñez is the author of six books, including Chrysopoeia: Essays of Language, Love, and Place, (Stephen F. Austin State University Press 2022) and The Poet & The Architect (Terrapin Books 2021). Her work has been the basis for international, cross-artistic collaborations with colleagues in music, dance, visual art, and architecture. Christine served as South Dakota’s poet laureate from 2019-2021 and currently teaches for the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. christinestewartnunez.com.   

Julia Franklin is an accomplished artist, leader, professor and founder of multiple community arts programs. She creates immersive installations that memorialize everyday people, places, and moments to explore ideas of memory, loss, and identity. Franklin is a recipient of the prestigious Iowa Artist Fellowship and has exhibited artworks in over 85 shows across the United States. She is currently the Executive Director of Mainframe Studios in Downtown Des Moines. juliafranklinart.com/landscapes