In Visual Art and Poetry Exhibit, Artists Explore ‘Finding Home’

Reston Community Center‘s Jo Ann Rose Gallery will display “Finding Home,” a collaboration between two artists who explore what home means to them, next month.

The exhibit, which features former Reston resident and visual artist Morgan Johnson Norwood and Reston resident and poet Sally Toner, runs from July 30 to Aug. 24.

Both artists will also explore loss and women’s lives today in the exhibit. Norwood draws from her experience after a divorce forced her to relocate and Toner reflects on a breast cancer diagnosis that influenced her writing. Her first book, “Anansi and Friends,” will be released this summer.

Norwood and Toner, who were neighbors and are educators, look forward to sharing their work with the community. Norwood’s paintings feature circular forms, which symbolize “nurturing small spaces within seed pods,” she told RCC. Toner’s poetry features “flipping around”of romantic concepts inspired by William Blake’s “The Tyger” and “The Lamb.”

RCC interviewed the artists, who said the following about the exhibit:

“Much of my auditory sensibility with spoken language comes from my grandfather — his Georgia accent, smooth syntax, and the audacious storytelling to which I always had a front-row seat,” said Toner. “Finding Home transcends the man-made elements of both Reston and Arlington to find truth in nature and energy in the urban sphere.”

“Sally has gone through cancer and faced fear and reevaluated her priorities, and I have gone through divorce and loss and also faced fear and reevaluated mine,” Norwood said. “I see our conversation as a universal one of transformation and upheaval and then finding that sense of safety and love.”

A reception and special reading is set for Saturday, Aug. 3 from 12-2 p.m. at the Jo Ann Rose Gallery.

Photo via Morgan Johnson Norwood/Reston Community Center