The Unbroken Piece

ISBN: 1478153741

Author: Drago, Antoinette

Condition: New

Product Description The Unbroken Piece is a collection of poems and original paintings by its author Antoinette (Toni) Drago. With a profound ability to communicate through art subjectively and spiritually, Dragos wide-ranging interests in subjects as esoteric as the Renaissance and Theoretical Physics bloom in her paintings and poetic tributes to the power of science, the essential nature of spirit, humanity and philosophy. Her work has been exhibited on both coasts and a 2009 solo art exhibit in Los Angeles featuring some of the visual material presented in this book displays her sense of the randomness and occasional cacophony of life amid the deeper abiding calm of spiritual waters. This sense of amalgamation, fluidity, continuity, and even an ethereal component, are often present ~ either subtly or explosively ~ in both her writing and painting. Her understanding of artistic freedom is attenuated in her thematic usage of flow and flight as metaphors for her non-conformist free spirit and hope and a future for humanity ~ through the further interlaminations of science, soul, and time. From Kirkus Reviews Poetry and full-color art transform personal thoughts into wonderment. Dragos debut poetry collection opens with a bang: A homeless man dies on the street, and no one cares. Passersby step over him, assuming hes sleeping. Accompanied by artwork depicting a dark, almost post-apocalyptic cityscape, the poem becomes a moving elegy not just to the dead man, but to the slow death of the world he left. The narrator eulogizes him with a simple phrase: His existence is a lesson of their greatest fear / Yet what he has learned they will never know. A sophisticated interplay of religion and science accompanies more traditional examinations of loneliness, despair, hope and love. While the subject matter may be familiar, the delivery is original and startling, fluid in execution, mesmerizing. The broad scope of the authors source material doesnt diminish the collections intimacy. A poem about suicide that reads almost like an old French song neatly precedes a bittersweet piece about surrendering youth while longing for ones childhood home. Dragos gift is her ability to find the intimate, the human in each experience, whether shes describing the sounds of a house at night, the lives of a redwood and a weeping willow, the longing for a lover or a lone explorer who does not realize his adventures could spell death for others. The poems in this collection sing with life and vitality. The fluid, evanescent, often elegiac verse shares space with an extraordinary collection of visual images in full color, ranging from landscapes filled with unexpected light, to roads to nowhere, to one particularly transfixing image of wiry tendrils linking an outstretched hand to an upraised, blank face. An exultant volume of thoughts and impressions on religion, science and humanity. About the Author Antoinette (Toni) Drago, displays a broadly diversified set of talents as a poet, painter, writer, musician, singer, songwriter, playwright, and professional actor. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has written and performed songs in movies and on television and is a member of BMI as well several arts associations. She often integrates these skills in entrancing mixed media expressions showcasing her creativity and love for the Arts and Sciences. With a profound ability to communicate through art subjectively and spiritually, Drago's wide-ranging interests in subjects as esoteric as the Renaissance and Theoretical Physics bloom in her paintings and poetic tributes to the power of science, the essential nature of spirit, humanity and philosophy. Drago has recently returned to her roots working as a professional singer, musician and painter in the resort beach community she had also enjoyed as a child in the Florida Panhandle. She spent more than 20 years in Los Angeles working steadily in the arts and as a freela