Photos: Chris Emeott
Local poet and painter discusses her creative practice and original poem form.
Long Lake’s Laura Rockhold finds inspiration for her poetry and visual art just about anywhere. “Reading, discovering poets and artists, [and] visiting museums and galleries are central to my practice,” Rockhold says. “I follow my intuition, change mediums [and] play.”
Rockhold is currently focused on sculptures and paintings—on canvas, paper and wood—some other mixed media and poetry. The Lake Minnetonka area, where she and her husband have lived for 11 years, now with their daughter, is a reliable source of creative spark. “I find inspiration everywhere,” Rockhold says, from her wooded backyard and the Luce Line State Trail to hiking in Wood-Rill (Orono) and Wolsfeld Woods (Long Lake) Scientific and Natural Areas or sitting in the at Noerenberg Gardens, overlooking Lake Minnetonka.
Laura Rockhold is focused on sculptures and paintings—on canvas, paper and wood—some other mixed media and poetry. “I find inspiration everywhere,” she says.
Rockhold’s work engages with themes of nature and wilderness; family and motherhood; identity and belonging; and, she says, “the restorative powers of art, hope, beauty and healing.” Her first book of poetry, Thunderroot, was a finalist and semifinalist for several awards, and her poems have been published in places like Open Rivers (University of Minnesota journal) and RockPaperPoem (literary magazine).
As for many artists, Rockhold’s path to pursuing art full time was circuitous. She studied child psychology and art at the University of Minnesota and then worked in corporate roles. After a decade as a communications director, Rockhold shifted to art consulting and became the director of a Minneapolis art gallery. Then, COVID-19 offered a pivot—staying home with her then-kindergartener, guiding remote schoolwork and finding time to rededicate herself to painting and writing. Since 2020, she’s been doing art and poetry full time.
Rockhold has even created an original poetry form, the golden root, where the first and last word in each line are taken from a source poem to which the writer is paying tribute. Her first golden root was an homage to Lucille Clifton, one of Rockhold’s favorite poets. At the time, Rockhold was working with a form by Terrance Hayes, the golden shovel, when this new form emerged as she wrote. “To make a golden root, I have to feel a connection to the source poem—which happens instantly. And when it does, it’s magic,” she says. In addition to Clifton, Rockhold counts Ada Limón and Emily Dickinson among her favorite poets.
She’s taken her practice on the road, teaching poetry to fourth graders at Orono Intermediate School (OIS) during last April’s National Poetry Month. OIS media specialist Maria Nellis coordinated Rockhold’s work with the fourth graders. “This experience opened students’ minds to a new form of creative expression that combined poetry with art. They truly enjoyed working with a poet and artist to create their own original pieces,” Nellis says.
In particular, they worked on ekphrasis, poems that are based on detailed descriptions of other existing works of art. “I brought art books from home and guided the children in a writing exercise, and they had the opportunity to read their original poems aloud to their class,” Rockhold says. Does she think it’s trickier to teach kids about poetry in an age of intense digitization? “No—the opposite, actually,” Rockhold says. “I think they crave it, to express their creativity in words and to use their unique voices.”
Laura Rockhold sits before the painting RENEWAL. Minneapolis’ Veronique Wantz Gallery will exhibit some of her original poetry and paintings.
We Took It All by Laura Rockhold
We went mid-morning, under a clear sky,
to walk and listen as we do in the woods.
First, we saw two trumpeter swans gliding on the lake,
holding themselves as sacred as their other, we said, loves for life.
In the marsh, we saw four great white egrets wading,
each on their own path.
And three garter snakes sunning
their creative sides in the tall, yellow grass.
We saw six bass spawning by the bridge, giving up
something they think they love, for something they really do love.
We saw one bald eagle ascending
from the lowest to the highest point.
And on the lake again, we saw two loons and their reflections
as still as reawakening dreams.
We started on the path for home, and took it all
as a sign of something good.
Breathe In
Laura Rockhold opens an exhibition of her original painting and poetry, (IN)HALATION January 17 to February 28 at the Veronique Wantz Gallery 901 N. Fifth St., Minneapolis. (The opening reception is set for 4–7 p.m. January 17.) The show includes paintings, mixed-media work, light, sound and poems. “Everything in the universe is made up of energy and vibrates at a certain frequency,” Rockhold says. This body of work associates specific color/light frequencies with specific sound frequencies used by ancient Egyptian and Tibetan musicians to promote healing. For Rockhold, all art has the power to open and heal.
