Do you thrive on being creative? Do you feel your art is just a little misunderstood? Well, then I've written this prose poem just for you.ODE TO AN ARTIST
I want you to latch onto my skin like a bandage clip; dig your edges just below the surface of my cloth. Cat’s claws in a carpet, where I spread my art—eggs, macaroni, my heart from a grocery bag. Do you believe in me and the canvass I’ve ‘destroyed’—in the bulbous fluffy protective skin I paint my soul on? I know you don’t understand, but I did try to recreate my wit for you on our lounge room floor. It’s not my fault—is it?—that you can’t distinguish brush strokes from errant splashes? I’m sorry. Yes. I’ll fetch the vacuum cleaner.
Do you ever wonder whether people 'truly understand' your art?
I’ve actually just commented on this elsewhere. The perfect reader for what I write is me. He gets me. He knows to look beyond the words. He gets all my cultural references. He doesn’t prejudge. No one is going to read what I write and make the connections that I do and I’m quite resigned to that. What other people read is a completely different thing to what I’ve written. As Samuel Johnson said. "A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it." A book is a collaborative work every bit as much as a play is. If it fails not all the responsibility falls on the shoulders of the writer; there are bad writers and there are bad readers.
ReplyDeleteFor a prologue, I tried to write this epic-Creation-myth type of thing. It was too obscure, and now my mum-in-law is afraid to try reading my stuff. That's fair, it was self indulgent crap.
ReplyDeleteLove this poem, Jess!
ReplyDeleteWell, since I write commercial fiction, I can't really complain about being misunderstood. Mr TR does enough of that for the both of us!
Sometimes I do.
ReplyDeleteAnd that picture is really funny.
I'm not too worried. Most people won't get it, because most people are morons. I don't write for them.
ReplyDeleteThis made me think of the messes my children make in the name of creative genius. A genius of a poem.
ReplyDeleteBut then, ;) you know that, don't you?
You know what they say - one man's junk is another man's treasure. I think art is highly subjective including novels. :)
ReplyDeleteLOVE the poem.
ReplyDeleteI personally am a bit against the whole 'getting' art thing. Oftentimes there IS nothing to get. Or if there is a message or meaning behind it, why does it have to be analysed?
With the stuff I make, a lot of it comes down to the aesthetic or the challenge of working out how to put something together. I have to resist the urge so say, 'they're just clothes, man!' if someone asks me what my creations are 'about'.
Anyway, thought you might enjoy this poke at the art world. I got a few laughs out of it...
http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2011/05/23/i-dont-get-art/
xo Alli
Beautiful...
ReplyDeleteNow I'm laughing at your question. Yes, so often I feel others misunderstand me. I think I'd have to say they don't get 'me', not my writing. Make sense?
hah! Loved this!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure my parents fully understand, though they try and that's really the most i can ask of them
Good poem and topic Jessica.
ReplyDeleteI spend lots of time trying not to be misunderstood, but still find myself need to clarify too often.
Absolutely. Guess it goes with the territory -- an artist's insecurity, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteLove the pic. And the poem is perfect. :)
Brilliant poem! And I don't think anyone "gets" me, my humor, or my writing.
ReplyDeleteI love the poem and the picture. I hope to some extent my readers understand my art but I think I would continue my muse or my art anyway.
ReplyDeleteGreat poem!
ReplyDeleteI hope people understand my art.;p
There are days....
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome :D
ReplyDeleteI ADORE Jackson Pollock - I could stare at his work for HOURS, and yeah, some people just don't get it.
Oh, I like this. I find it so strange who, from my life before I was out as a writer, gets me and whoe doesn't... seems like there are many people who SHOULD, but just don't...
ReplyDeleteLOVE.
ReplyDeleteI can confidently say that NO ONE in my house "gets" what I do...or why I thrive on creativity. That's why I need people like YOU in my life <3 (Well, that and a whole host of other reasons...)
Uncreative people don't, and sometimes those with no ambition. (As in, a self-help book - why on earth do I need that?)
ReplyDeletehi miss jessica! for my drawing no one could get it some times not even me. ha ha. mostly i dont much care if no one gets any of my creating stuff cause im just doing it cause its fun and i love doing it. if someone could like it thats cool.
ReplyDelete...hugs from lenny
LOL! It's a good think hubby understands/accepts the projects scattered about the house. He realizes I don't have a room of my own.
ReplyDeleteThat poem reminds me of Anne Tyler’s Celestial Navigation, about an artist who’s always grabbing things around the house and making sculptures. He’s also autistic, so that he gets so wrapped up in his work entire days go by and he’ll find his hands aching and food left by wife sitting cold by the door.
ReplyDeleteNicely said. I can empathize with the feeling of being misunderstood. And your last statement about the vacuum cleaner says a lot about how easy it is to subvert or alter your art and creative process to suit the needs of others. It's so easy to become insecure about yourself when people don't get you. But try not to. Just because people don't understand it, doesn't mean it's not brilliant.
ReplyDeleteBucket
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