Ten Paintings
Twenty Poems
10001 Strokes of Distraction
Norwich School of Art & Design run a MA course Writing the Visual which I was introduced to by Andrea Holland, I was impressed by Andrea and her description of, and enthusiasm for the course to such an extent that I almost enrolled. I particularly enjoyed the term 'sister arts' as a reference to the combination and interface of the craft of writing and the craft of the visual arts.
At the same time I was thinking about a focal point for my own poetry. In this I had determined that my poetry ought to try and bring goodness and beauty to the reader (and the writer). That I believe is the essence of much of my previous writing in any event; looking backwards I have to search hard to find poems with a political message or in support of any specific cause, it is not my natural outpouring.
To then use the 'beauty' has seen by, and described by, another artist for the basis for poetry seemed quite a small step. Of course what I would see when I looked at the paintings would not be the original beauty that the artist portrayed, no instead what I see is an abstraction of that perception, an indication which nevertheless can have also its own wonder; but it does put me at a distance, and to write about this puts you the reader at a further distance; press on.
The works of art may have to be viewed electronically, in the first instance, however I have elected that for each poem about the painting a 'sister' poem about the experience of seeing the painting will be created, the reader having only one degree of distance or separation then from this piece. For the atmospheric experiential poem to be brought to life I would hope to see the art woks in their usual surroundings, but where this is not possible the poem may be written in some relative inspirational place with a copy of the artwork at hand.
The art works will be chosen based on the general popularity, although a part of me (some would say a large part) may like to show off by selecting some relatively obscure or unknown artists the purpose of this piece is intrinsically bound up in the image being widely known, of having been seen already by the reader in fact.
