I've taken drawing and painting on and off for about 10 years now. And I love it. Like writing, art requires patience, hard work and perseverance to succeed. Many people give up after a class or two but I have stuck with it. Now that I'm attending art classes full time, I'm improving at a much faster rate.
Robert, my art instructor (and an accomplished artist) is always encouraging us to seek out the poetry in our artwork. At first I wasn't sure what he meant. Art doesn't rhyme and offers no room for word play. It took me many years, but about three years ago I finally began to understand what he was saying. Poetry is so much more than rhyme and word play.
Bringing poetry to the visual arts has to do with finding beauty in the ordinary and intensifying it through color, soft edges and harmonious set ups. Like a poem, a painting has rhythm, grace and tries to strike an emotional chord with the viewer. It should help you see something in a fresh way, in a way you'd never considered. In short, it should take your breath away or make you gasp in admiration. Years ago my husband went to the New York World's Fair with his parents. There on exhibit was the Pieta. He said he'd never thought much of sculpture before - then he saw Michelangelo's masterpiece. He said it was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen, that the figures seemed so lifelike and full of grace that he fully expected them to move any second. In short, it was not just a sculpture, it was a work of poetry.
The subject needn't be as lofty or idealized as the Madonna. It can be as humble as a pair of work boots, a city rooftop, a clay pot and some onions, a bowl of plums. Chardin proved this to us over and over again in his art. So did Van Gogh, Cezanne and many other masters. In the hands of a true poet or artist, the humblest things are endowed with beauty and elegance, grace and rhythm.
