The collaboration of art and poetry is not a new concept to the art world, but it is one that, in Benicia at least, is usually met with enthusiasm.

Streets and Straits in Poetry and Paint is the latest show to embrace the concept, combining 13 works by Benicia Plein Air Gallery painters with the words of 13 local poets, including the current and two previous city poets laureate. A reception for the exhibit is Saturday.

The idea was new to Susan Street, one of the newest members of Benicia Plein Air Gallery. “I proposed it when I got the application from the library. I was new at the gallery and I thought it would be cool,” she said.

Her suggestion to put a twist on the event was for each artist to do a painting that would be paired with a poet. She also volunteered to put the show together.

“Do you know what it is like to get 13 artists and 13 poets together? It was a little exciting.”

Street let the poets pick a painting that inspired them. “The only thing was it had to be a painting that had to do with streets or the strait,” she said.

The artist/poet combinations are Catherine Fasciato/Frances Jackson; Iris Sabre/Alice Salerno; Terry Hughes/John Hamling; Mike Dadasovich/Sherry Sheehan; Pat Ryll/Joel Fallon; Susan Street/Johanna Ely; Susan Johnson/Mary Susan Gast; Samantha McNally/Bruce Moody; Diane Ringwood/Tom Stanton; Craig Britton/Lois Requist; Rolando Barrero/Peter Bray; Dixie Mohan/Bobby Richardson; and Marshall Lockman/Don Peery.

A reception for the exhibit will be Saturday from 3-5 p.m. Each poet will read beginning at 4 p.m.

“It’s a cool opportunity for the public to meet the artists and the poets,” Street said. “That doesn’t happen too often. You may have a pairing, but you don’t have a place were all the poets and the artists are in the same place.”

If You Go
The opening reception for Streets and Straits in Poetry and Paint will take place Aug. 1 from 3-5 p.m. in the Marilyn Citron O’Rourke Gallery of Benicia Public Library, 150 East L St.