My Show is Coming Together
So far, I've finished several new paintings for my show at Watermark. When I was accepted to do the exhibit, I had most of my paintings together and had a good idea of what I wanted to use for my poems. That was a year ago. I had no idea when I asked about a show that the waiting list would be so long. Some galleries have two year waits, so I guess I was lucky. Even so, the year passed quickly, and I can't believe it's time to get it together.
Throughout the year, because I needed the money, and because I needed to get into more shows, I sold and/or donated several of the pieces I had intended for my exhibit. Even my title piece "Blood and Water" is living happily now in the home of one of my professors. So my exhibit has transformed, just by the very nature of time passing and the focus of my thoughts changing. Now I am much more captivated by trees and eerie landscapes than water. That may not be true, but what I'm painting tends to be more trees and landscapes than water. I guess this is because going home to Western Kansas I was reminded of the sparse and lonely trees there, and because of my mother dying, I associated the cold, wintery landscape and desolation with loneliness, sadness, grief, and loss. I haven't been around water, as in a body of water, for over a year now.
So I don't have those images fresh in my mind to draw from, although the image of water--in all of the senses of "image" (meaning appealing to all of the senses) revererates in my subconsious continually.
A lot of my poems have transformed as well. I think I've shifted (again) in the length of the poems I'm writing. This shift is from long to short. In graduate school I had to learn to write a poem more than two stanzas long. Now I easily write pages of poetry. But recently--in the last year--I have been writing some poems that are a few stanzas long and tend to be more lyrical. This isn't a judgement for or against longer or shorter poems, just an observation that my writing has changed, grown, I think if not in skill at least in versatility.
My work--both art and poetry--tends to focus primarily on dark subjects. It's just easy for me to access the abyss when writing poetry or painting. But this show, I'm sensing, is a pivotal point for me in that I want to learn to confront joy in my work as well. Billy Collins was quoted in Poet's Market as saying, "There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it." This really makes me think.
I'll update you more later, since others are waiting for the computer.
Throughout the year, because I needed the money, and because I needed to get into more shows, I sold and/or donated several of the pieces I had intended for my exhibit. Even my title piece "Blood and Water" is living happily now in the home of one of my professors. So my exhibit has transformed, just by the very nature of time passing and the focus of my thoughts changing. Now I am much more captivated by trees and eerie landscapes than water. That may not be true, but what I'm painting tends to be more trees and landscapes than water. I guess this is because going home to Western Kansas I was reminded of the sparse and lonely trees there, and because of my mother dying, I associated the cold, wintery landscape and desolation with loneliness, sadness, grief, and loss. I haven't been around water, as in a body of water, for over a year now.
So I don't have those images fresh in my mind to draw from, although the image of water--in all of the senses of "image" (meaning appealing to all of the senses) revererates in my subconsious continually.
A lot of my poems have transformed as well. I think I've shifted (again) in the length of the poems I'm writing. This shift is from long to short. In graduate school I had to learn to write a poem more than two stanzas long. Now I easily write pages of poetry. But recently--in the last year--I have been writing some poems that are a few stanzas long and tend to be more lyrical. This isn't a judgement for or against longer or shorter poems, just an observation that my writing has changed, grown, I think if not in skill at least in versatility.
My work--both art and poetry--tends to focus primarily on dark subjects. It's just easy for me to access the abyss when writing poetry or painting. But this show, I'm sensing, is a pivotal point for me in that I want to learn to confront joy in my work as well. Billy Collins was quoted in Poet's Market as saying, "There are a lot of poets who have the courage to look into the abyss, but there are very few who have the courage to look happiness in the face and write about it." This really makes me think.
I'll update you more later, since others are waiting for the computer.
posted by H2O at
1:41 PM
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