Poet, Watercolorist
A poet for the last 50 years, in 2022 I broadened my artistic horizon to explore landscape painting with the dynamic medium of watercolor and inks. I'm particularly attracted to these water-based media because they actively participate in the creative process by moving and blooming and merging with one another. As a poet, my usual creative method has been to put words and turns of phrase together to see what they might produce, following the poem’s own suggestions as to what it wants to be. I think of watercolor as the poetry analog in the visual arts. These paintings are an adventure of discovery and associative leaps, revealing landscapes of the mind that call themselves into being. You can find examples of this work at https://instagram.com/vfowlkeswatercolors . (Instagram user @vfowlkeswatercolors .)

My poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals, among them The Southern Review, Negative Capability, Birmingham Arts Journal, Elk River Review, The Texas Observer, Ampersand Review, and Willow Springs. My poetry collection, The Sound of Falling, was published by Negative Capability Press in 2013. Memory, relation of self to Other, and how we understand ourselves in what we call "the world" are common themes.

Photography and film provideshttps://www.youtube.com/vfowlkesjr another creative outlet.