Quotes

“I paint self portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”

~ Frida Kahlo

Quotes

detail of Vintage, 2008, oil on canvas

“A picture has a logic that can’t be verbalized until afterwards; it can’t be designed. We talk about thinking a thing over, meaning over again, afterwards. I am more and more aware of the importance of the unconscious process that has to take place while one is painting–as if something were working away in secret. You can almost stand by and wait until something comes. It was been called ‘inspiration’ or ‘an idea from heaven’ but it’s far more down-to-earth and far more complicated than that.”

~ Gerhard Richter

Quotes

“A great painter… once I used to think I ought to paint like the ‘great masters,’ and of course I couldn’t. I felt it to be a terrible lack in me. I thought I basically wasn’t a painter at all but a fraud, just pretending to be one. It was a long time before I realized that what I do–the desperate experimentation, all the difficulties–is exactly what they all do: that’s the normal nature of the job. That’s painting.”

~ Gerhard Richter

Quotes

“The kinds of meaning and order that we may find in works of art, I suspect, rarely duplicate those that the artists who made them might find. Most artists don’t concentrate on the past, and hope that their work gives us a sense of the present.”

- Jasper Johns

Quotes

“Just as some prefer people who use few words and gestures and leave something to be guessed, so some people are fond of paintings or sculptures which leave them something to guess and ponder about.”

~ E. H. Gombrich

Book Recommendation: Poets on Painters

There are certain books that travel with us throughout our lives. Poets on Painters, edited and introduced by J.D. McClatchy, is one such title for me. The pages of my copy are yellowing, globs of burnt sienna paint are permanently adhered to the back cover, the spine is broken in spots, and the top corner of the front cover is folded over. I often return to the book in particularly contemplative moments, or when I feel I’m in a bit of a rut.

Poets on Painters is a thoughtfully compiled collection of essays, lectures, articles, and catalog introductions all written by poets about paintings and painters. As a collection, the writings successfully illuminate many relationships between the two art forms. Poets, by nature of their form, are able to craft language to describe painting in simple eloquent language. Unlike much art writing of our day, these essays do not suffer from “artspeak,” but rather cut straight to the heart of the matter. (For an engaging discussion on the perils of “artspeak,” start with this post by artist and writer Carol Diehl.)

What I enjoy most about this book is that the essays often focus on poets finding inspiration and meaning from painters. Of course, as a painter, I flip that inspiration around. In some ways, it is easier to learn about form and about painting through the eyes of a poet. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because there is no competition, as there might be between painters. Perhaps because poets just use language so skillfully, they are able to bring about with words what might otherwise be imagined or expressed visually.

The book as a whole is a wonderful read, although I don’t believe I have ever read it cover to cover. I like to read whichever entry strikes me that moment, or go back and look for some wonderful quote that I remember but can’t quite pin down. The gems in the book for me are “Pictures” by Gertrude Stein, “The Relations Between Poetry and Painting” by Wallace Stevens, and “Painters as Writers” by Stephen Spender. The introduction by McClatchy is also excellent.

In addition to highlighting the likenesses of poetry and painting, this book ultimately describes the unique qualities of each particular form. And how they are somewhat unlike one another. Or, perhaps, each useful for conveying different aspects of similar experiences.

In an earlier post, I wrote about some lessons I’ve learned about painting from reading and writing poetry.

Buy the book from Portland’s own Powell’s Books, the largest independent bookstore in the world.

Quotes

“I cannot overemphasize the importance of play. The freedom of play and its transitional character encourage the suspension of beliefs whereby a shift in direction is possible; play ought to be part of the working process. Free from skepticism and self-criticism play allows you to relinquish control. Playful activity provides an alternative way to see, to imagine, to do, to make, to think otherwise. In play there are no ends, there are only means, however, means inadvertently can lead to ends. Rules can be made up as you go along or even in hindsight.”

~ Richard Serra
addressing the Williams College class of 2008

Quotes

“…for most poets paintings are primal, as ‘real’ as the bread and wine on the table,
as urgent as a dying parent or concealed lover in the next room.”

~ J.D. McClatchy

Some Lessons from Poetry

My love of poetry began when I was a student at Bennington College and I heard Frank Bidart speak as part of a lecture series. He talked about how “talent” is such an unnecessary word to use when considering poetry. He said that being a poet has to do with a palpable need to engage with and respond to the world in a particular and sensitive way. I was very touched by his lecture and I immediately realized that his perspective applied to painting as well.

Around the same time, I was introduced to the poem “The Idea of Order at Key West” by Wallace Stevens. This beautiful poem was simultaneously familiar and completely foreign to me. I loved the poem immediately and understood the words intuitively, but I also had a deep desire to ponder it more fully. I hoped that some day, someone might have a similar response to even just one of my paintings.

Since those early discoveries, I’ve always enjoyed poetry in and for itself but I also realized I wanted to immerse myself in poetry in order to understand painting more completely. Over time I gleaned so much about painting from poetry including the importance of considering form, the power of metaphor, and the necessity to engage with subjects outside of myself.

From poetry I learned that the way something is made is as important as the work’s subject. Or, the way something is constructed holds clues to its meaning. The form embodies what the whole thing is. A painting, for example, could be a figurative scene or an abstract composition, but first and foremost it is a painting.

Reading and writing poetry instilled in me an appreciation for strong metaphor. Strong metaphors do not feel trite. They surprise. They are specific and immediate. They challenge us. Metaphors remind us of things we didn’t know that we knew. They happen in successful paintings and successful poems.

When you examine something outside of yourself, the work (a painting, poem or any other form) becomes a conversation between you as the maker, and the world. The object or poem itself also exists outside of the maker and finds its own place in the world.

By looking outside of ourselves, we allow metaphor and form to fully take shape. Our observations and responses do reflect our own thoughts, emotions, and questions because the conversation is embodied in the form.

In Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke tells his young friend, “…seek those themes which your own everyday life offers you; describe your sorrows and desires, passing thoughts and the belief in some kind of beauty – describe all these with loving, quiet, humble sincerity, and use, to express yourself, the things in your environment, the images from your dreams, and the objects of your memory.”

Quotes

“In painting, you are experiencing that rare privilege of being completely free to do or say anything you wish. You may get into technical difficulties and wish you had never taken a subject so complicated. You may feel like giving up, but don’t do it. Instead, put the painting away for a few days and let it dry; then try working on it again. Perhaps by this time your courage will have returned. Remember, in painting there are many ways of being right and each new theme you paint is your small world to do with as you wish.”

From Painting for Enjoyment by Doris Lee and Arnold Blanch published in 1947