 Self-Portrait, by Käthe Kollwitz (Germany) 1889 All Dressed Up I recall her as one of my students dashing to the shop for more turps, wearing a dirty painter’s smock and grinning at people who grumbled as she ran past. Women painters. Whatever next? Bad as actresses. They weren’t far wrong. She loved to disguise herself in fancy dress, as anything but a good Prussian girl. Best of all was the time she played the part of a half-pissed barmaid and not a single person knew her. That boldness showed in her work . Isn’t it clear in this self-portrait? Shoulders squared, she’s wearing a professor’s frock coat; one hand grasps a lapel; one eyebrow raised, she’s asking herself what next?
Working from Home At one end of the dining table I made space for ink and acid, pens and copper plates, wax and needles, blocks of paper. I planned work around meals until the baby came. His needs took up so much of my day I had none left for myself so when I started this picture my ideas were a constant itch: marks I could make, to show death’s bony fingers reaching for a mother, how candlelight might shine on her thin face. I fitted the work in late at night, oil lamp radiant, baby asleep, the city’s bustle stilled to the clop of a cab-horse, a distant bark, the crack of wood in my stove.  Woman with Orange, by Käthe Kollwitz (Germany) 1901 Woman with Orange I draw her face gleaming in the lamplight, mantle and shade both white in umber darkness; decide if her eyes should be unfocussed or gaze downcast; think how to show that an orange's scent is filling the room as stifling warmth engulfs her.
Love Scenes i.m. Käthe Kollwitz and Hugo Heller what did you mean when you wrote about your dream of him it was lebhaft you said und schön were your bodies tautening to climax each chasing its own pleasure or were you folded into each other so quiet and close his breath stirred a lock of your hair Sharon Phillips Sharon Phillips started writing poems when she retired from her career in education. Since then, her work has appeared in many print and online journals and anthologies, including Places of Poetry, Poetry Birmingham, Raceme, About Larkin, The Poetry Society Newsletter, Atrium, The Clearing, One Hand Clapping, Ink Sweat and Tears, The High Window and previously in The Ekphrastic Review.
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May 2025
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