Orcas Island women Lori Fast and Rhonda Barbieri invite the community to celebrate National Poetry Month and the coming of Beltane with a visit to their collaborative art show, “Body Language.”

The show opens April 23 at Enzo’s Cafe Gallery and runs through May, featuring figurative pastel and charcoal drawings by Fast along with poetry composed for them by poetess and life model Barbieri.

“My work captures a sense of movement and energy of the human body, [and] expresses my fascination with the beauty of the landscape of the human form,” said Fast, a former ballet dancer. Since moving to Orcas in 2006, Fast has worked with models weekly as part of the Orcas Island Life Drawing Group.

Barbieri, from her work in contact improv dance to Grand Canyon river guiding to sustainable farming, says she has always relied on her body as her best life tool and medium of expression.

“I began modeling in college at age 19 and now, at 42 years old, I am happy to still be working with many island artists in a medium that is sometimes misunderstood or misrepresented,” she said. “The human form is so beautiful when it is simply expressed. When an artist like Lori ‘gets’ what I am saying with my gestures and poses, the possibilities are phenomenal!!”