The Art of a Book &
Books about Art
I don’t know
anything about art I only know that
love it and I dabble in it sometimes. It is my youngest daughter, Felicity, who
is the artist in our family; working as a professional one now: it is her beautiful
drawings and paintings which illustrate this book. My eldest daughter, Bianca,
is a professional photographer; while my middle daughter, Keziah, is also gifted
in digital design work.
Living with an
artist in the family is wonderful for me; her books about Art are scattered
everywhere; as are her drawings and paintings and all her materials and easels
and delightful ‘mess!’ I find it all inspiring and have learned lots! From time
to time I pick up one of her Art books. Intending only to flick through them I
soon find myself intrigued and reading more of them than I thought I would.
What
continually amazes me is how often I will come across concepts and ideas which
I have known inside me somewhere, but which I have not seen written or
expressed, or not in such allegorical ways. Ideas in painting can be applied to
writing almost seamlessly, I find. Ideas about freedom and love, truth and
beauty have the same effect in art as they do in writing; they can be defined in
the same way.
The following
is an extract from the Foreword to my book: THE
RAGGED WRITINGS OF EVERLAND: A Book of Amaranthine Poetry; Volume One:
“Painting and writing link . . . Just as the strokes and colours of a
particular painting produce a certain emotional effect in us, in its
communicating without words, it is yet like a piece of writing having a similar
pleasurable effect on us, also. Beauty can be as much in the sound of a run of
words, as in the sight of a play of colours in an abstract painting. But like
everything else which affects our consciousness, we need to learn to become
conscious of such a thing, lest it pass us by.
Our inner light comes in nuances, and
according to our heart’s level of surrender. As in a style of impressionistic
painting, the artist finds it not important to reproduce what he sees according
to its outer context – he instinctively knows the inner context is the thing to
grasp – he sacrifices the outer natural form for the abstraction; for a
diffusing of the beauty he sees within it. It all flows together; but, it is
revealed only little by little. He instinctively dissolves the forms in his
painting so that they cannot be too easily perceived by the outer self; which
all too quickly judges and discards; he would be known only in that most holy
place within where was no judgment, only wonder. Like the abstract painter, the
inner writer finds another language. Inadvertently he stumbles upon another way
of communicating truth. Another place where, the emotions, which were renewed
by surrender, could ‘read’ words they could not understand, but which would
stir the spirit deep within,
and in this way bring to the mind that vital revelatory flash of insight which
was the mind’s true food!”
Some of the ideas I have used to explain my ragged writings I have gleaned from
reading between the lines of a wonderful book on art and painting and drawing
and art appreciation by Robert Henri, The
Art Spirit; Basic Books edition, 2007; Perseus Books Group, Cambridge, MA, USA.
“Robert
Henri was an American artist, teacher, and outspoken advocate of modernism in painting.
Henri was a devote of realism and the usage of everyday city life as subject
matter. He taught at the Art Students League in New York from 1915-1928, and
had a profound influence upon early 20th century painters such as
Stuart Davis, Rockwell Kent, and Edward Hopper. His book The Art Spirit is a classic among all those who love art.”
I love this
book! And I continually find treasure in it. Though Henri is speaking to
artists and to the art world his ideas can be transposed and be as equally valid
to writers, especially the ‘inner-writer,’ as well as to all creative people,
whatever their particular expression is, in a kind of ‘cross-pollination’ of
concepts which brings light! Here are a few more life-giving quotes from his
book:
“There are moments in our lives, there are
moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of
our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. If one
could but recall his vision by some sort of sign. It was in this hope that the
arts were invented. Sign-posts on the way to what may be. Sign-posts toward
greater knowledge.”
“The sketch hunter has delightful days of
drifting about among people, in and out of the city, going anywhere,
everywhere, stopping as long as he likes – no need to reach any point, moving
in any direction following the call of interests. He moves through life as he
finds it, not passing negligently the things he loves, but stopping to know
them, and to note them down in the shorthand of his sketchbook, a box of oils
with a few small panels, the fit of his pocket, or on his drawing pad. Like any
hunter he hits and misses. He is looking for what he loves, he tries to capture
it. It’s found anywhere, everywhere. Those who are not hunters do not see these
things. The hunter is learning to see and to understand – to enjoy. There are
memories of days of this sort, of wonderful driftings in and out of the crowd,
of seeing and thinking.
Where are the sketches that were made? Some
of them are in dusty piles, some turned out to be so good they got frames, some
became motives for big pictures, which were either better or worse than the
sketches, but they, or rather the states of being and understandings we had at
the time of doing them all, are sifting through and leaving their impress on
our whole work and life.”
“Every student should put down in some form
or other his findings.”
“When the artist is alive in any person,
whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring,
self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs,
upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those
who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are
still more pages possible.”
“Let yourself free
to be what you will be. Those who express even a little of themselves never
become old-fashioned.”
- Robert
Henri; (1865-1929); The Art Spirit
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