Artist- Speak.
.
You might think an artist would write and talk
in artist-speak, art being so ingrained.
You might expect the terminology
of pigment, tools and techniques to be
genetically imprinted in the gray matter of
language, and no manual of technical terms
would be required.
.
For me it isn’t so.
It’s like the discussion of regional sub-cultures.
You can’t hear the dialect rolling out between
your lips, but you speak it, and what you say
or do as your art expresses your world,
your milleau, your culture, and unwittingly
you are it from the inside out and whatever
comes out of you is of that world,
.
whether you see or hear it or not.
.
Still, that walnut shaped hemisphere sprouts,
blossoms into trees, flowers, hands with
green leaves growing from branching fingers,
vining out to reshape and embellish
the surface of an ever-expanding universe.
.
The creator, the creation impacts that universe
interactively. It becomes the artist, the artist
becomes the universe, re- forming the other.
What is seen is transcribed. What is known
is translated into new language, descriptors
of visual wonders that others might see;
but expressions of color, movement, balance,
rhythm, more, can never be fully conveyed
into that old language, to those without
that special sight .
Words fall short,
.
because visual art is a different tongue.
.
Some workshop leader once told the group I was in not to write about writing. Others do say to write about art. I gave a presentation a year or two ago to the Greeley Poetry Club about many poets who
have written about art.
.
I find it is a great stimulus to write about a painting. The poem above was prompted by knowing I am an artist, and yet I don't write about art very much. I do convey imagery in my writing, but use words to do so, and often fail to find metaphors in the materials and techniques of art.
.
Hmmm- maybe I should use that as an exercise. I think I'll try it. How about you?
.
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Writing and Images are the sole ©Copyright of Ruth Zachary.
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