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Poetry Houses: An interview with Peter Krasznekewicz
Peter Krasznekewicz, who just finished his junior year in high school, is the creator of the marvelous Little White House Project, which I wrote about in this entry. He conceived of having words from the writings of Emily Dickinson, stenciled onto little white houses, and placed on and around the Emily Dickinson homestead, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Peter was kind enough to talk to me, via email, about this wonderful project.
Your little white houses are so tremendously appealing. They beg to be interacted with, walked around, thought about. There are so many different ways to think about them as objects: you could see them as points for meditation, for example, or as shelters for words. When you think of them yourself, what thoughts do you have about what they do and how they work?
Originally I only had the quotes of Dickinson on one of the roof panels, but after talking to an artist at Deerfield Academy I decided to spread the words all over the houses to involve the viewer even more. I began to think of the houses as canvases and the words as the painting. Having fragments of quotes and single words on each panel made each panel unique and part of a puzzle that needed to be put together by the viewer. It also forces people to think of each word individually and then together as a whole.
As I stenciled the quotes on the houses in Saint Annes church, I spent a lot of time thinking intensely about a single word or phrase. Words such as Nobody, Love, Venture, Beauty, Luck, Hammer, Haunted became more powerful and poignant. Also, when you look at many house together you see groups of words that create new phrases or thoughts.
One of the major goals of my project was to create art that was interactive and involved the viewer more so than a painting on a wall. By putting them outside in nature it forces people to not only enjoy the house but also the trees, flowers an, grass and buildings nearby. I like to say that they give the site of the exhibit a new outfit. I noticed that after the exhibit left Deerfield that the grounds looked a bit naked to me, and I sometimes visualize how the campus looked when the exhibit was up. For example, when I look at the science center I always think of the house that had the quote "The brain is wider than the sky."
The installation is titled, “The Little White House Project: Dwell in Possibility.” What sorts of possibility are you hoping people will think about?
One of of my goals in attempting to do this project was to take an idea and see it through until it was finished. I came across countless obstacles when developing my idea including shattering my collarbone and having two surgeries, losing two major donors and having to raise money twice, having 300 sheets of the wrong wood delivered in August a month before the Deerfield exhibit was scheduled to be displayed, and many others, but eventually I was able to put the exhibit on display. Through this exhibit I'm encouraging people to think about the words on the houses and realize anything is possible no matter what gets in your way. Many people have great ideas but only a few are able to make them become a reality. I'm hoping that people take the time to see their ideas through until completion, no matter how crazy or difficult it may be. I also want people to see that by using green materials and trying to eliminate waste you have a positive influence on the world around you.
Emily Dickinson’s poetry, especially when you take short quotes, has an aphoristic quality which your installation really highlights. Are there any other poets whom you could imagine using as a source for the walls and roofs of your houses?
I tried to tailor the exhibit to showcase the words of Emily Dickinson the best I could, but perhaps in the future with another different exhibit I might use the words of another writer or poet. Some foundations in California have approached me wondering if I would be open to using the words of John Steinbeck or Robinson Jeffers in an exhibit. T.S. Eliot and Walt Whitman are two poets I also quite admire. I have also given thought about putting haiku poems on the houses or some other design. I would also like to explore bringing music to the exhibit.
Among the quotes, can you pick out a couple that you like especially?
Some of the quotes that are my favorites are "Finite to fail; but infinite to venture," "Dwell in possibility," "Where thou art that his home," "The brain is wider then the sky," and "I'm nobody, who are you?"
(A complete list of quotes is available here)
Can you say a little something about the physical creation of the houses? The style of the stencil for the words looks like the old font that a lot of eighteenth and nineteenth-century books were printed in. Is that deliberate? (It looks great!) Did you create the stencil? Did you have help with painting the panels?
I wanted to create a structure that did not compete with the landscape and the local architecture, but instead complement and involve it. I designed the houses to mirror local barns in the area. The houses are white and very simple to create a canvas for the words of Emily Dickinson as a focal point. I designed the houses to minimize the cuts and keep the panels as complete as possible. I also designed the house to be easy to set up and install.
I experimented with different fonts on the prototypes, but I felt that an older-looking font would bring a bit of history back into the houses instead of a having a modern font. For the stencils, I ordered certain words and two complete sets of the alphabet in different sizes to create the words on the houses. Due to the fact that I was in school when the houses were being constructed and could not spend eight hours a day working on them, I hired a father and two sons that are carpenters in Turners Falls to help construct the houses with me. The project would have certainly been impossible without them. I also mapped out where the words would go on templates that I worked on over the summer. We made some changes sometimes as we stenciled the quotes to make them more interesting.
How did you fund the project?
Key to the project was founding my nonprofit, Action Art Inc., to help raise money for the project. To raise the money I created a website and a fundraising presentation and approached friends, family members, foundations, and basically anyone who would listen to my crazy idea. The nonprofit helped encourage people to give donations, but in the initial stages of the project most people were hesitant to give donations to a 15-year-old high school student. However, after I was able to gain permission from both Deerfield Academy and the Emily Dickinson museum to set up the exhibit on their grounds, donations were easier to get. In the end I was able to raise over $50,000 in cash and services to fund the project.
This project has very good economic basis too it. The $50,000 investment created a lot of value well beyond that amount. The benefits included exposing thousands of adults and children to art and poetry, because all the media coverage brought tourists and locals to Historic Deerfield and Amherst to see the museums, stores, shops, and restaurants, over $15,000 of panels are being donated to Habitat for Humanity to build a house, over 600 1 ft. by 1 ft. panels have been donated to schoolchildren and artists to paint on and eventually will be sold to raise money for local charities, I employed local craftsmen to do the work, and I hopefully inspired others to "Dwell in Possibility."
You mentioned the installation artist Christo as one of the people who inspires you. Who else inspires you?
The other people that inspire me are my father who is always encouraging me and asking tough questions, and many of the wonderful teachers that I have had at Deerfield Academy. Some others are Steve Jobs, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Frank Gehry. I am inspired by people who get things done and aren't afraid to try new things.
Have you had any ideas for possible future projects that you can share?
I have not been able to formulate too many new ideas recently, but the future of Action Art may be in slightly smaller projects in greater number instead of one every two or three years. However, if I raise enough money I would love to pursue a couple of large ideas. Whatever I do, it is important to me to involve as much of a local community as I possibly can . I want my projects to be good investments for the donors and the communities involved.
Thank you so much for the interview, Peter, and best of luck!
The Little White House exhibit remains up on the grounds of the Emily Dickinson Museum through the end of June.
Your little white houses are so tremendously appealing. They beg to be interacted with, walked around, thought about. There are so many different ways to think about them as objects: you could see them as points for meditation, for example, or as shelters for words. When you think of them yourself, what thoughts do you have about what they do and how they work?
Originally I only had the quotes of Dickinson on one of the roof panels, but after talking to an artist at Deerfield Academy I decided to spread the words all over the houses to involve the viewer even more. I began to think of the houses as canvases and the words as the painting. Having fragments of quotes and single words on each panel made each panel unique and part of a puzzle that needed to be put together by the viewer. It also forces people to think of each word individually and then together as a whole.
As I stenciled the quotes on the houses in Saint Annes church, I spent a lot of time thinking intensely about a single word or phrase. Words such as Nobody, Love, Venture, Beauty, Luck, Hammer, Haunted became more powerful and poignant. Also, when you look at many house together you see groups of words that create new phrases or thoughts.
One of the major goals of my project was to create art that was interactive and involved the viewer more so than a painting on a wall. By putting them outside in nature it forces people to not only enjoy the house but also the trees, flowers an, grass and buildings nearby. I like to say that they give the site of the exhibit a new outfit. I noticed that after the exhibit left Deerfield that the grounds looked a bit naked to me, and I sometimes visualize how the campus looked when the exhibit was up. For example, when I look at the science center I always think of the house that had the quote "The brain is wider than the sky."
The installation is titled, “The Little White House Project: Dwell in Possibility.” What sorts of possibility are you hoping people will think about?
One of of my goals in attempting to do this project was to take an idea and see it through until it was finished. I came across countless obstacles when developing my idea including shattering my collarbone and having two surgeries, losing two major donors and having to raise money twice, having 300 sheets of the wrong wood delivered in August a month before the Deerfield exhibit was scheduled to be displayed, and many others, but eventually I was able to put the exhibit on display. Through this exhibit I'm encouraging people to think about the words on the houses and realize anything is possible no matter what gets in your way. Many people have great ideas but only a few are able to make them become a reality. I'm hoping that people take the time to see their ideas through until completion, no matter how crazy or difficult it may be. I also want people to see that by using green materials and trying to eliminate waste you have a positive influence on the world around you.
Emily Dickinson’s poetry, especially when you take short quotes, has an aphoristic quality which your installation really highlights. Are there any other poets whom you could imagine using as a source for the walls and roofs of your houses?
I tried to tailor the exhibit to showcase the words of Emily Dickinson the best I could, but perhaps in the future with another different exhibit I might use the words of another writer or poet. Some foundations in California have approached me wondering if I would be open to using the words of John Steinbeck or Robinson Jeffers in an exhibit. T.S. Eliot and Walt Whitman are two poets I also quite admire. I have also given thought about putting haiku poems on the houses or some other design. I would also like to explore bringing music to the exhibit.
Among the quotes, can you pick out a couple that you like especially?
Some of the quotes that are my favorites are "Finite to fail; but infinite to venture," "Dwell in possibility," "Where thou art that his home," "The brain is wider then the sky," and "I'm nobody, who are you?"
(A complete list of quotes is available here)
Can you say a little something about the physical creation of the houses? The style of the stencil for the words looks like the old font that a lot of eighteenth and nineteenth-century books were printed in. Is that deliberate? (It looks great!) Did you create the stencil? Did you have help with painting the panels?
I wanted to create a structure that did not compete with the landscape and the local architecture, but instead complement and involve it. I designed the houses to mirror local barns in the area. The houses are white and very simple to create a canvas for the words of Emily Dickinson as a focal point. I designed the houses to minimize the cuts and keep the panels as complete as possible. I also designed the house to be easy to set up and install.
I experimented with different fonts on the prototypes, but I felt that an older-looking font would bring a bit of history back into the houses instead of a having a modern font. For the stencils, I ordered certain words and two complete sets of the alphabet in different sizes to create the words on the houses. Due to the fact that I was in school when the houses were being constructed and could not spend eight hours a day working on them, I hired a father and two sons that are carpenters in Turners Falls to help construct the houses with me. The project would have certainly been impossible without them. I also mapped out where the words would go on templates that I worked on over the summer. We made some changes sometimes as we stenciled the quotes to make them more interesting.
How did you fund the project?
Key to the project was founding my nonprofit, Action Art Inc., to help raise money for the project. To raise the money I created a website and a fundraising presentation and approached friends, family members, foundations, and basically anyone who would listen to my crazy idea. The nonprofit helped encourage people to give donations, but in the initial stages of the project most people were hesitant to give donations to a 15-year-old high school student. However, after I was able to gain permission from both Deerfield Academy and the Emily Dickinson museum to set up the exhibit on their grounds, donations were easier to get. In the end I was able to raise over $50,000 in cash and services to fund the project.
This project has very good economic basis too it. The $50,000 investment created a lot of value well beyond that amount. The benefits included exposing thousands of adults and children to art and poetry, because all the media coverage brought tourists and locals to Historic Deerfield and Amherst to see the museums, stores, shops, and restaurants, over $15,000 of panels are being donated to Habitat for Humanity to build a house, over 600 1 ft. by 1 ft. panels have been donated to schoolchildren and artists to paint on and eventually will be sold to raise money for local charities, I employed local craftsmen to do the work, and I hopefully inspired others to "Dwell in Possibility."
You mentioned the installation artist Christo as one of the people who inspires you. Who else inspires you?
The other people that inspire me are my father who is always encouraging me and asking tough questions, and many of the wonderful teachers that I have had at Deerfield Academy. Some others are Steve Jobs, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Frank Gehry. I am inspired by people who get things done and aren't afraid to try new things.
Have you had any ideas for possible future projects that you can share?
I have not been able to formulate too many new ideas recently, but the future of Action Art may be in slightly smaller projects in greater number instead of one every two or three years. However, if I raise enough money I would love to pursue a couple of large ideas. Whatever I do, it is important to me to involve as much of a local community as I possibly can . I want my projects to be good investments for the donors and the communities involved.
Thank you so much for the interview, Peter, and best of luck!
The Little White House exhibit remains up on the grounds of the Emily Dickinson Museum through the end of June.