Finding Fresh Inspiration in Ancient Sources
THE PROVINCETOWN INDEPENDENT
COLLABORATION
Ellen LeBow, Mary Gordon, and Suzzy Roche look to the past for creative direction
BY ABRAHAM STORER JUL 6, 2022
In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus comes upon a fig tree toward the end of a long journey. Hungry, he curses the tree when he finds only leaves, no fruit. Although Jesus left the tree withered and incapable of bearing figs ever again, it yielded a different kind of fruit for Mary Gordon, Ellen LeBow, and Suzzy Roche — three women collaborating on a project integrating image, narrative, and music.
Gordon, known for her fiction and writings on religious themes, wrote a poem in which Jesus and the tree speak of reason and appetite. The poem is one of a series offering unconventional perspectives on familiar Bible stories, which followed the publication of Reading Jesus, Gordon’s reflections on the Gospels.
The unusual collaboration began to take shape when musician Suzzy Roche of the Roches wrote a song in response to one of the poems. Soon, Gordon, who summered on the Cape for over 20 years, enlisted Wellfleet artist Ellen LeBow to create images. It was the poem about the fig tree that caught LeBow’s attention.
The event: “Unprayed Prayers”: Ellen LeBow’s art and Mary Gordon’s words
The time: The LeBow exhibit runs from July 8 to 20; Mary Gordon reads on Tuesday, July 12 at 5 p.m.
The place: Rice Polak Gallery, 430 Commerical St., Provincetown
The cost: Free
Ellen LeBow and Foxy in her Wellfleet studio. (Photos by Edward Boches)
