In 1959, Michael Spafford was a university student studying literature when he decided he wanted to learn the techniques of etching, a form of printmaking. He chose as his subject the Wallace Stevens poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird," and created a series of images, one for each of the thirteen sections of the poem. Thus began a long affair between the artist and the poem, an affair which has seen Mr. Spafford produce three visual interpretations in addition to the first series of etchings: two separate series of woodblock prints (1975 and 1986), and a 65’- wide mural for the Seattle Opera House.

Why this poet, and why this poem? "I was attracted by the visual character of the poetry," Mr. Spafford said in an interview for this exhibition. "The poem is about nature yet it is richly metaphorical, and I look for opportunities to do projects that are serial in nature." When asked why he creates variations of earlier work, Mr. Spafford said that he does so to "get closer to of the source of the inspiration."

The two editions of "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" in the Microsoft Art Collection provide a unique opportunity to look at Mr. Spafford’s process of revisiting work. For the most part, the images in the 1986 series are rendered in a more starkly geometric and abstract manner while the 1975 images are more richly textured and more detailed. The harder edges of the 1986 series imply a cooler, more detached and formal relationship between artist and subject, while the 1986 images suggest a more passionate and emotional relationship. As an example, look at the images from the two series that illustrate section III of the poem:

The 1986 version represents the blackbird as a bold V-shaped figure afloat in the center of the frame, surrounded by simple, yet bold and swirling strokes. The power and stark beauty of the image grab your attention immediately. On the other hand, the 1975 image is very different. Rich and dense with texture and line, this image depicts the wind as ocean-like current; the blackbird soars in the current, and the mood seems joyous.

The 1986 series is the simpler of the two in turns of artistic style and interpretation of the poem. This contrast in style is further underlined by the way Mr. Spafford handles the final section of the poem.

If Mr. Spafford was attracted by the metaphorical qualities of the poem, the final image in the 1986 series leaves no doubt about his reading of the metaphor. He renders the tree and blackbird in the shape of a skull, clearly interpreting the blackbird as a symbol of death. In the 1975 version, such a reading is possible but not necessarily obvious from the image of the blackbird perched on the limb of a spare, skeletal tree in the snow.

And what of the poem itself? What does it mean? Certainly, the blackbird has been symbolically portrayed darkly in legend, literature and art, and we all know about the symbols associated with the number thirteen. Yet the poem does not reveal its meaning readily. A better question might be: How do I respond to the poem? What questions does it raise? The poem is more than an expression of darkness or death. It is also about perception vs. reality, nature and the imagination, mystery and awe. Perhaps the key section in the poem is this one:

The poem circles on itself and ends essentially where it begins with the blackbird perched in its snowy natural setting still, calm, observing and observed. For the poem’s readers, a single interpretation forms but one of many possible circles, and for Michael Spafford, the poem provides an endless circle of fascination. In fact, Mr. Spafford hopes to "mark the edge" again by creating yet another set of images related to the poem. We look forward to his continued visual exploration.

Michael Spafford is one of the Northwest's most celebrated artists; his work spans four decades and is known for its unabashed human content including everything from lust to beauty, serenity to violence. His inspiration comes from a lifelong fascination with classic Greco-Roman myths, stories that have to do with human origins and motivations. He takes poetic license to alter these stories in his work, distilling them down to explore the essence of the human condition, using the figure as his central image.

Born in Southern California, Spafford was educated at Pomona College and Harvard University, studying both art and art history. In 1963 he began teaching at the University of Washington School of Art, and from 1967 to 1969 he lived in Rome on a Prix de Rome Fellowship, granted two years in succession. He has twice won the Art Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He received much notoriety when the Washington State Arts Commission asked him to create two mural-sized works for the House of Representatives in Olympia; they were promptly covered by the legislators for their content, later uncovered in 1991, and in 1993, covered again, and later removed.

Wallace Stevens served as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. (now the Hartford Insurance Group) for many years. This was his "day" job, which makes the fact that he also wrote extraordinary poetry and is considered to be one of the most important American poets of the 20th century all the more amazing. Between 1931 and 1950, Stevens published several volumes of poetry, all of which are included in The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, published in 1954. Stevens died in 1955, at the age of 75, the same year he won the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for this collection of his poems.