The Art of Making Art

Outer world, inner world of painting

The Art of Making Art

 

First,

you gather,

and it feels like suspense,

like a great mystery.

You search for clues

among your paper and paints,

and all those canvases

stretched tight.

 

Don't think,

just gather.

Colors are moods,

ideas float like bubbles

in the water bowl.

 

Gather atmosphere.

Breathe.

 

Deep blues, sepia,

add cad orange for energy,

or choose cerulean, lemon yellow,

and alizarin crimsin.

 

When you reach for your brush,

you'll know.

 

Ride the wind,

set your mind free,

you never know

what will drift in through an open window.

 

First color,

throw it on!

Swirl in clear water,

brush stroke once, twice.

Paint slides against white,

subdues it, blasts a shape

never seen before

toward your open mind---

Don't slam that window!

Don't catch that wild bird.

 

Fluttering wings take flight.

 

Let her soar,

let her coast each thermal

toward outer blue.

After each flight she returns,

settles on your shoulder,

whispers where she's been.

 

You move your wrist wildly,

her stories shake you.

 

She's all about heights,

mountain tops,

escapes,

the straight-down dive and rise,

the quick rock and roll.

Now she's soft, and silent, soaring

over meadow grass and trees,

tasting the sweet tart of sour cherries

stolen red after red.

 

Feel the momentum,

the constant rise of knowing

there is nothing better

than what will happen if.

 

All experiments are fruitful

and multiply.

 

Remind yourself once or twice

to step back, get some distance,

grab food, eat while you pace.

 

Look how shape and color dance!

Balance may not be required,

this is not school,

there are no tests.

This is your inner world flung forward,

skimming over the roar of your own rhythm.

 

Your fingers know this beat by heart,

let them loose, let your muscles play it out,

every stroke, every flick,

every long, smooth pull

of that brush

takes you closer to the center

of something you knew long ago:

 

You are strong.

 

And it feels dangerous, heady,

you are sometimes lost,

and sometimes found.

 

Embrace your mistakes,

hug them,

kiss them hard.

 

In the end

your canvas displays the record

of your journey,

the flight of your desire,

the release of your anxious perfection,

 

and it feels like relief.

 

Reviews

[Justin Tobey]

Beautiful piece!!! As an artist myself, I can completely relate to everything in this poem!!! That creative suspense, as inspiration builds in you; the release and emotion behind what others see as simple colors; and the relief when you finally release the building tension behind your eyes. Breathtaking! :D This one's going in my favorites for sure! Loved it!!!

[Captain Goldpants]

Hmm� I think the sentiment is right, but the piece is so restrained and structured and doesn't do justice to the really crazy colour of that process. Or maybe that is just me. I don't feel like 'that bird' - and if I do, I feel like a fat chicken or other feathered thing that is somehow too leaden to fly.

The best line in this is: Don't slam the window

[J]

The personification of Art as Woman is a great metaphor here, very deft and smooth and said with passion and surety. To court and bedazzle and hopefully impregnate these canvases is the excitement you show to me, and the relief as you say, when it becomes real and full.

Myself, I paint and draw only fitfully, when the time seems right, and when my mind cannot express in words what I would like. I like to think there's a unique hidden vision within all of us needing to be set free.

Wonderful piece.

[J. Hampton]

Like an Imax - view of the artistic process

all the TLC...self critiqing
really becoming one...with our works

and how truly personal it really is...
magnificent write !!

Blesssssssssssssssss

[Fabian G. Franklin]

This was magnificent. Great piece. My many kudos to the author and thanks to Emily Burns for sending this my way. I very much enjoyed it.

[Winter McPherson]

Excellent! You allow the reader to enter into the artist's mind and fly on the wings of your creative imagination. Great write!

[mick weller]

What a wild piece this would be...
I'm left unsure of the medium - water? though colour 'slides'...
has the boldness of oil or acrylic... not the delicacy of water colour
definitely a bold canvas of the inspired whatever the medium
'the water bowl' - 'swirl in clear water' - what a conundrum of colour you present here!

[Michelle Tarnowski]

Yes, it is like a magical ride on colors. You have expressed it perfectly!

[Antony]

Thank you to Emily for leading me to your page, I am in awe of this masterpiece of metaphors and multiple interpretations, there are so many great stanzas on this colorful palette, you have mixed your colors as well as any great artisit does.

Ride the wind,
set your mind free,
you never know
what will drift in through an open window.
Your fingers know this beat by heart,
let them loose, let your muscles play it out,
every stroke, every flick,
every long, smooth pull
of that brush
takes you closer to the center
of something you knew long ago:

You are strong.

And it feels dangerous, heady,
you are sometimes lost,
and sometimes found.

Embrace your mistakes,
hug them,
kiss them hard.

Just excellent writing with some very good lessons to be had, by those that may read deeply into this piece of poetry.
Antony

[Ken Simm.]

Excellent description of a process I know well. Thanks for letting me see it Emily and thank you for writing it Toni

[Siddartha Beth Pierce]

Wonderful! I agree wholeheartedly with Justin - I am a visual artist as well and your description is vivid and entrancing. So right on with the whole process. How difficult to map the making of one's mind on canvas but you have certainly captured it with grace and true essence. My favorite lines:

'Embrace your mistakes,
hug them,
kiss them hard.'

Beautifully penned. I would that you would read my 'How I Spent Today' where I attempt to capture some of what you have so wonderfully done here. Thank you for sharing your immense talent.
Light,
Siddartha