Nonfiction – Karen Lee Kleis

Flower Child

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My original concept for this self-portrait was more of a hippy-dippy-let-your-inner-child-free-to-romp thing. Then this last week happened. More young black men gunned down by police for no apparent reason, police officers falling victim to sniper fire in Dallas, the ongoing BLM protests amid hyperbolic and untrue rhetoric about their “violent” motives, the over-aggressive police reaction to protesters across the country. And I haven’t even touched on other news. With all this going on, I wasn’t even sure if I had a voice anymore or, if I did, what I wanted to say. Then last night I was thinking about an article I’d read that compared what is happening in our country today to what was happening in 1968. I decided to go ahead and do this self-portrait with less of a staged costume effect and with a different focus in the narrative.

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Miscellaneous, Nonfiction

Talking to God

I gave up on organized religion many years ago. I was thirteen at the time and became disillusioned with my church because the elders were unwilling to help me reconcile the concepts of predestination and free will. “You must have faith,” was the answer I got. In what? Confusion? Since that time, I have considered myself to be an agnostic rather than an atheist. Why? When asked that question, I generally reply with something suitably vague like, “Well, it’s impossible to know for sure if god exists.” The truth of the matter is much simpler. I still talk to god.

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Book Tales, Nonfiction

Book Tales: Poetry Remembered

When I was a child, there was a bookshelf in our living room and on that shelf lived a copy of Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayam. I don’t remember when I first delved into this book. I know I was still in grade school and I do remember that my initial attraction was to the lovely, colorful illustrations that accompanied the text. It was a handsome book indeed — hardbound with its own slipcase, pages smooth to the touch, text printed in some kind of fancy font that was almost as pretty as the pictures. Continue reading “Book Tales: Poetry Remembered” →

Nature of Nature, Nonfiction

The Nature of Nature: Invasion!

My neighbor, Lee, came to my front door one afternoon. He was holding out his hand for me to see something. The something turned out to be a very well preserved Cuban tree frog skeleton. Take the time to do a little research on the Cuban tree frog and you will discover that it is one of Florida’s many invasive species. You will also discover that Florida’s wildlife experts recommend euthanizing these frogs when they have been properly identified. Why? Because the Cuban tree frog is classified as an invasive, exotic species that represents a danger to native fauna. While I was photographing this cool little skeleton, I got to thinking about what we mean when we talk about invasive vs. native species. Turns out it’s not exactly a crystal clear distinction. Continue reading “The Nature of Nature: Invasion!” →