If you missed his reading at the Decatur Library last night, you may be interested in this great ArtsATL Q&A with Decatur poet/musician/visual artist Kodac Harrison, who recently published his first book of poetry and song lyrics titled “The Turtle and the Moon”. Here a neat snippet…

ArtsATL: Did your interest in painting grow out of your interest in poetry and songwriting, or vice versa? How do you see the relationship between the literary and visual arts?

Harrison: For years I have supported my art with house painting, which gave me the freedom to make my art my priority. That is, I could determine my own schedule. I could tour when I wanted to, I could take off to do an interview, a photo shoot, a recording session or whatever, because I worked for myself. In the process I would use one side of a drop cloth for artistic fun and the other for work. I would use washes [watered-down paint] to tint sections of a cloth. If I had an interesting color, I would apply it in different ways to the fun side.

Over the years some of these became very interesting. Still, I was doing it for fun. On my 60th birthday, Sylvia Cross offered to give me a show at the Sycamore Place Gallery in Decatur as a birthday present. I took her up on it and stretched some of my canvases, which really made them jump.