Shared Visions 4 – 2026

Chains of Artistic Inspiration

Shared Visions returns in 2026! This is an interdisciplinary collaborative project featuring works by Colorado visual artists, poets, composers, and performers, coordinated and presented by Ars Nova Singers. First presented in 2016 and again in 2019 and 2024, this project brings together Colorado artists in a unique way, building a community of artistic inspiration and culminating in a performance of new music by Ars Nova Singers in April 2026.

At the first stage (May–September, 2025) we assembled an online gallery of 21 works by seven Colorado visual artists. Colorado writers and poets accessed these visual artworks and selected one (or more) as a basis for writing new poetry. The poetry and visual art were gathered into a beautiful anthology and given to four Colorado composers. In turn, these composers selected poetry that inspired them and began setting the words to new music for voices. These new choral pieces will be performed by Ars Nova Singers at our April 2026 performances.

Below are the four chains of inspiration that this project has generated, and the 12 artists who have inspired each other.

Visual Artist: Alex Gogoliev, Little Explorers
Poet: Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Little Explorer
Composer: Glenda Luck

Visual Artist: Claire Ibarra, Cloud Dance
Poet: Nina Kentwortz, Demper Pond
Composer: Leah Porter Tracy

Visual Artist: Jan R. Carson, Alteration 3
Poet: Moudi Sbeity, The Poet Wonders
Composer: Paul Fowler

Visual Artist: Gayle Gerson, Bridge Impressions
Poet: Heather Gardner, Six Ways of Looking at a Bridge
Composer: Tom Morgan

Alex Gogoliev

My artistic journey began with a desire to capture my dreams on paper. I’ve always been fascinated by lucid dreaming, and I still keep a dream journal to this day. That journal has become an endless well of ideas and inspiration, fueling my creativity.

Trying to translate the strange and wonderful imagery from my dreams into quick sketches gave me the first push to create. Dreams are often beyond words, and a sketch can be the perfect tool to capture their essence. At first, I used a simple pen, but as my passion deepened, I transitioned to ink pens for a more refined expression.

Another important source of inspiration for me is travel. Every chance I get to explore new places and fully immerse myself in nature is a cherished experience. When I’m out in the world, all the noise and distractions fade away, and I’m reminded of what truly matters. In those moments, I find clarity and can truly witness the moment. And hopefully capture this moment in my art. I know that no painting or photograph can truly replicate being out there and seeing with your own eyes. But I carry those moments within me, allowing them to shape and inspire my art, filtered through my own perception.

My children also continue to inspire me. When we’re outdoors as a family, their innocent wonder and excitement are contagious. Through their eyes, I’m able to rediscover the beauty of the world, which deepens my appreciation and inspires my work even more.

https://www.alexgogoliev.com/alex-gogoliev-boulder-area-artist

Alex Gogoliev, little explorers
Watercolor on wood panel, 12x9in

Little Explorer

To walk in the woods
is a kind of prayer.
Come in on quiet feet
and feel how you are not
alone. The golden trees
are full of eyes.
What are those sounds
you cannot name?
Whatever is untamed
inside you sings along.
Dwarfed by awe,
you might feel small,
but the song says,
traveler, you are all.

– Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer co-hosts Emerging Form (a creative process podcast), Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal) and Soul Writer’s Circle. Her daily audio series, The Poetic Path, is on the Ritual app for your phone. Her poetry has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and PBS News Hour, in O Magazine and American Life in Poetry, and on Carnegie Hall stage. She’s the author of Exploring Poetry of Presence II: Prompts to Deepen Your Writing Practice, and her newest collection is All the Honey.

Website: wordwoman.com <https://www.wordwoman.com/>
Daily poetry blog: A Hundred Falling Veils <https://ahundredfallingveils.com/>

In the relentless pace of modern life, Glenda Luck’s music creates a sanctuary for you—an intimate invitation to pause, breathe, and reconnect with the emotions and stories that celebrate your humanity.

Rooted in a deep bond with nature, inspired by a childhood spent dancing barefoot through the forest in upstate New York, her compositions offer you a moment of warmth and stillness, a chance for transformation and meaning.

Glenda Luck brings you a unique voice in classical music—one that speaks directly to your heart. This music invites you to feel your own authenticity. It draws you into an intimate community of shared experience, offering a powerful connection that transcends time and place.

In a world where genuine connection often feels lost, Glenda Luck’s compositions compel us to remember who we are. Through refined craftsmanship and curated orchestrations, she will enrapture you with an honesty that will inspire you to clarity, and introspection. The experience of losing yourself in this music, is a journey for you to reclaim the beauty and meaning woven into every moment of your life.

Immersed in classical music and ballet from childhood, Glenda studied piano and flute privately through her school years before spending fifteen years composing and performing folk music independently. She has since returned to school full-time to pursue her Bachelor of Music in Composition at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she studies with Carter Pann — Chair of Composition at CU Boulder, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and two-time Grammy-nominated composer whose works have been performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and ensembles worldwide — and privately with Forrest Pierce, Professor of Composition at the University of Kansas and winner of the prestigious Barlow Prize, whose compositions have been performed by the BBC Singers and ensembles across the globe.

https://glendaluck.com/

Claire Ibarra’s fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. Her debut novel Fragile Saints was a finalist for the Colorado Authors League Literary Award. Claire’s second novel is forthcoming with Atmosphere Press.

Claire is also a visual artist, and her images have been exhibited at galleries throughout Colorado. She is a member of the NOBO Art District, Boulder Arts Association, and Open Studios Boulder. Claire is also a member artist at D’art Gallery in Denver’s Santa Fe Art District.

https://www.claireibarra.com/

Claire Ibarra, Cloud Dance
Photographic print

Demper Pond

I come to the water
When my heart needs sky.
Effervescent indigo
Teaches lessons on
Breathing without ripples
To distort this shining reflection
And
Cerulean is medicine
For the vice-clutch of mortality
That pulses amber
Behind my eyes.

–Nina Kentwortz

Nina Kentwortz

My Poetry is inspired by the aweful precocious Colorado nature. I often write from my experiences hiking and exploring.

My Visual Art is part cosplay and part photography. I start by sewing a costume, then creating any other physical props I need. Then I set up a photoshoot at my apartment or in a natural area. My art strives to shed light on a story or theme that feels pertinent in my life.

Nina’s website

Leah Porter Tracy (she/they) (b. 1999) is a composer and vocalist currently pursuing a Master of Music in Composition at University of Colorado Boulder, where she studies with Annika Socolofsky and Carter Pann. Leah draws inspiration from the people and places around her, basing her compositions on current events, childhood recollections, powerful stories, being in nature, and her most meaningful friendships and experiences. Imagination and wonder are at the core of her compositions. She has a particular interest in introducing beginner or intermediate singers to contemporary techniques and often writes with a wide range of ability levels in mind.

Leah was recently named the winner of the Ember Ablaze Composer Lab, and in 2023, she was selected as a Composer Fellow for the Choral Arts Initiative PREMIERE|Project Festival. Her choral music has won awards such as the San Francisco Choral Artists New Voices Project and Chicago A Cappella HerVoice Competition. Her piece “sing to us, cedars” was performed at the 43rd Annual MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music New Music Festival in 2022, and by Grammy-winning ensemble Kansas City Chorale at their 2023 Spring Song Concert. Her music has been performed by professional, community, church, and school choirs across the United States.

An active choral artist, Leah also sings soprano with the celebrated Denver-based choir, Kantorei. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Bowling Green State University in 2021, where she studied with Dr. Elainie Lillios.

https://leahportertracy.com/

Jan R. Carson is an artist working in Loveland, Colorado. She received an MFA in fibers from Colorado State University. Born in Oklahoma, her education also includes a Bachelor of Art and Bachelor of University Studies from Oklahoma State University, and a student printmaking internship through the OSU Art Department with Universal Limited Art Editions in New York.

Carson is the artist-owner of Moon Lily Mobiles, Inc., specializing in original mobile designs. Her site-specific aerial sculptures have been commissioned by Kaiser Permanente, Centura Health, and Rideout Cancer Center, among others. In 2018, she was awarded the Grand Prize in the Arrow Five Years Out Challenge for her pairing of textile art and LED light. Her work is featured in the books Dimensional Cloth: Sculpture by Contemporary Textile Artists by Andra F. Stanton (2018) and Bojagi: Design and Techniques of Korean Textile Art by Sara Cook (2019). Carson’s five-paneled illuminated work, The Screaming Dreams of Flowers, is now held in the permanent collection of the City of Loveland, Colorado.

https://janrcarson.com/

Jan R Carson, Alteration 3
NFT, 4200×6076 px (2024)

The Poet Wonders

how it is we don’t walk around awed and stunned and bowing to each other.
Not for me to answer.
The human can sometimes
be unbearably cruel,
and just as often, kind.
We don’t last long, anyway.
Neither does the frowning blue jay
resting in the pine bough,
unbothered by such thoughts.

– Moudi Sbeity

Moudi Sbeity (Muhamad Darwich Sbeity) is a Lebanese-American author, poet, and transpersonal psychotherapist. Born in Texas and raised in Lebanon, he moved to the United States at the age of eighteen as an evacuee following the 2006 July war. In Utah, Moudi founded and operated Laziz Kitchen, a Lebanese restaurant celebrated by the New York Times as “the future of queer dining.” Moudi was also a named plaintiff in Kitchen v. Herbert, the landmark case that brought marriage equality to Utah and the 10th circuit states in 2014. A lifelong stutterer, he is passionate about writing and poetry as practices in fluency and self-expression. They now call the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado home. https://www.moudisbeity.com

Paul Fowler

Sourcing materials parsed from the world’s spiritual traditions and natural beauty, Paul Fowler’s music will “work on you from the inside out” (Philadelphia Inquirer); invoking our shared human experience. Fowler draws from his regular work as a classical vocalist, improvising pianist, performer, and electronic musician to integrate old and new into “emotionally intense” (Washington Post) works which are “radiant, ghostly and shimmering” (New York Times).

His works have been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Park Avenue Armory, Suntory Hall, and National Concert Hall of Taiwan among others. Commissioning ensembles include New York Youth Symphony, San Juan Symphony, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, The Crossing, Ars Nova Singers, Hope Mohr Dance, and Boulder Ballet. Fowler is the Music Director for 3rd Law Dance/Theater. He has degrees in voice, composition and theater from Ithaca College and a masters in composition from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. www.paulfowler.net

Gayle Gerson was born in Troy, New York in 1948. She received a BA degree in secondary education from SUNY at Albany in 1970. After traveling with her husband and raising two children, she earned a Masters degree in School Counseling in 1995. In 1999, she began to work full time in developing a career in fine art, specializing in collage and watermedia and, most recently, oil.

Gayle can be described as a self-taught artist, although she has studied under the guidance of many artists in watercolor and in experimental workshops. She does weekly life drawing and painting sessions with a group of Western Colorado artists. She is a member of the Rocky Mountain Collage Society and is a signature member of the Colorado Watercolor Society and the Western Colorado Watercolor Society and the National Collage Society. She has won many national awards and her work is part of public collections in Colorado and private collections worldwide. Gayle currently teaches experimental/collage art classes at The Art Center in Grand Junction, Colorado and in private workshops. Gayle’s website.

Gayle Gerson, Bridge Impressions
Collage, 22x30in

Six Ways of Looking at a Bridge

i
The long and the short
way home, lungs and metal ribs
open and close, the exhale of sky.

ii
In the dark, suspended two hundred feet
over a trickle of black ink,
there is no such place as there.
Only here. And here.

iii
We wake up refugees,
cling to each other
from opposite sides of the same bridge.

iv
When I cross, I walk
into a language I don’t remember,
a new sound on my lips.

v
Both strange, both familiar,
I pass through two countries:
my life, my dream.

vi
A bridge is enough to lift our hearts.
Love is enough for both sides.

– Heather Gardner

Heather Gardner is Colorado poet, retired high school English teacher, and a pyromaniac with language. She loves the fire created by rubbing words together: the slow, blue flame and the shower of tiny sparks that fountain into the night.

Recognized as a “many-splendored musician” (The Boulder Daily Camera) and leading interpreter of new choral music, Tom Morgan has led the evolution of Ars Nova Singers from a local choral treasure to an intrepid professional choir with national acclaim. Under his leadership, the ensemble has pursued daring repertoire, innovative collaborations, and numerous commissioning projects, along with touring nationally and internationally.

As a composer, Morgan was an artist-in-residence of the Lucas Artists program at the Montalvo Center for the Arts in Saratoga, California (2006-2008). He collaborated with New York visual artist Lesley Dill in the production of an extended work for a cappella chorus, I Heard a Voice, which was premiered by the Ars Nova in 2002. His composition Psalm 88 for orchestra and chorus received the prestigious BMI Award, and his choral work Four Poems of e. e. cummings was presented on the opening program of the eighth Internacional de Musica Nueva festival in Mexico City. Several of his works have been performed internationally by the Peiyang Chorus of Tianjin, China. In addition to a significant catalogue of original works, Morgan has produced many arrangements and transcriptions for Ars Nova Singers and other vocal ensembles.