The Art Of Love: the Paintings & Writings Of Melinda Camber Porter; Honoring the Muse: Four Santa Fe Poets

Poetry on video is iffy, at best, and modern poetry, which often emphasizes the personal over the universal, can be a real tribulation. So it is with two new videos. The first, The Art of Love: The Paintings & Writings of Melinda Camber Porter, is a strange case: copyrighted by Porter herself, the brief program features the artist discussing her works, shows us details of rather primitive nude portraits, recites some French poetry, and shows snippets of text that disappear before one has had a chance to read them. In her comments, Porter talks about living in France--saying that one's vices are ok in France (which perhaps explains French cinema), and offers a curious disquisition on passion, a subject in which she acknowledges herself to be well-versed. While I'm definitely not from the utilitarian school of thought when it comes to art, I am at a loss to guess the audience for this video self-portrait. Hopefully, Porter's fans will find this on their own.Honoring the Muse: Four Santa Fe Poets, at twice the running time, is twice as tedious. Sabrina Coryell, Renee Gregorio, Joan Logghe, and Miriam Sagan talk with each other about the burden of being poets (a topic which, for all but struggling poets, is a little tiresome). This less than riveting conversation is broken up for readings by the poets with various degrees of relevancy in the accompanying visual imagery. The only one of the half-dozen poems that's likely to strike a resonant chord with viewers is a clever piece by Joan Logghe on her relationship with the state of New Mexico. At it's best the visuals show us a few sights in Santa Fe, at its juvenile worst it fixates on one of the women with long shots of her face and later follows her into a bathtub. Um, grow up.Not the best pieces of performance poetry out there, neither of these is recommended. (R. Pitman)