Isabel Bishop

"I hope my work is recognizable as being by a woman, though I certainly would never deliberately make it feminine in any way, in subject or treatment.  But if I speak in a voice which is my own, it's bound to be the voice of a woman."

Isabel Bishop

American Artist

1902 - 1988

Let's discuss the gender issue.  Can you look at a painting and tell whether it was painted by a male or female?  Can you read a poem or story and tell if a man or woman wrote it?  Can a male writer create female characters who are authentic?  Can a female writer create characters who are truly male?

14th Street

(1930)

I ask these questions because I believe, contrary to current popular opinion, that men and women have more similarities than they have differences.  Our desires, dreams and hopes are very much alike.  What do you think?  Does gender influence your art?  Your stories?  Your poems?

Isabel Bishop made the above statement when she was 76.  Four years later, she said: "I didn't want to be a woman artist, I just wanted to be an artist."  Do you want to be known as an artist or as a male or female artist?  Or are you an artist who happens to be female?

Here is a link to a narrative poem that I wrote in the voice of a Mexican woman: No One Sees Me.

http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/No_One_Sees_Me.html

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Anne Sexton

Anne Sexton

Photo by Elsa Dorfman

"I'm an artist at heart and I've found my own form, which I think is poetry."

— Anne Sexton

American Poet

1928 - 1974

Human beings, by nature, have a need and desire to create.  For some, this desire is crushed and destroyed in school.  For others, they quit because they feel they don't have any talent.  Anne Sexton once wrote: "I tried painting, but I wasn't good."  But she continued to paint in private.  She described her poems like paintings:  "I like to capture an instant.  A picture is a one-second thing — it's a fragile moment in time.  I try to do it with words."




Have you discovered your medium of expression?  What type of artist do you desire to be?  Are you an artist at heart?  




Here is a poem Anne Sexton wrote in response to Vincent Van Gogh's painting, Starry Night.







The Starry Night

By Anne Sexton

"That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars." Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother

The town does not exist

except where one black-haired tree slips

up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.

The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.   

Oh starry starry night! This is how

I want to die.

It moves. They are all alive.

Even the moon bulges in its orange irons   

to push children, like a god, from its eye.

The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.   

Oh starry starry night! This is how   

I want to die:

into that rushing beast of the night,   

sucked up by that great dragon, to split   

from my life with no flag,

no belly,

no cry.

Starry Night

by Vincent Van Gogh

Here is Don Mclean singing Vincent.  Enjoy.

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Langston Hughes

"An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose."

— Langston Hughes

American Poet/Novelist

1902 - 1967

It takes courage to be an artist.  You must be able to do what others are not willing to do.  You must be able to create what you are afraid of creating.  If you let fear of rejection influence what you create, you will not be able to produce the art that you want and need to create.  

Artists need to be free from the criticism of society.  Critics often get it wrong.  Don't let the negativity of others hold you back.  Create what your heart tells you to create.  Believe in the choices you make.  If you listen to yourself, you will find your way through the maze of criticism and come out with your spirit whole and free.

Are you feeling courageous?  Are you creating the art that you want to create?  Are you ignoring the criticism of both your friends and your enemies?  Are you creating from the heart?  The choice is yours. 

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James Michener

"When I am through writing a book, I turn to music or painting.  I also look at postcards of great works of art, which I have collected since I was a boy.  I leaf through them at least once a week."

— James Michener

American Novelist

1907 - 1997

For James Michener, all the arts were important.  He funded an art museum in Doylestown, PA, called the James A. Michener Art Museum.  He once said, "I have tried all the arts because I think one should respond to the art of his time and should be aware of what good people are doing."  

Do you expose yourself to the other types of art or do you limit yourself to your own speciality?  If you are a painter, do you only study painting?  Or do you read the novelists and the poets?  Do you attend theater and listen to storytellers?  If you are a novelist, do you study painting, sculpture and dance?  I call it cross-fertilization.  Exposure to other forms of art opens up new worlds and expands your imagination.

Michener also wrote: "One of the reasons why I have had good luck in writing is that I have always visualized my characters in the style of this painting and have kept them in my mind that way for a year or two before describing them in practical terms.  Thus one senses the weight and movement of a character and comes to know what that character is worth in the balance of the story."

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Natalie Goldberg

"The only failure in writing is when you stop doing it.  Then you fail yourself. "

— Natalie Goldberg

American Writer

1947 - 

Too often people quit writing, painting or acting because they think they are no good.  The only failure is giving up.  Even though your book has not been published you should not give up.  Even though no one has bought your paintings does not mean you should quit.  Even though no Hollywood agent wants to put you under contract, you should keep acting.  Don't give up on yourself.

Here is Natalie.

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Henri Matisse

"Every day that dawns is a gift to me and I take it that way.  I accept it gratefully without looking beyond it . . . . I think only of the joy of seeing the sun rise once more and of being able to work a little bit, even under difficult conditions."

— Henri Matisse

French Artist

1869 - 1954

Each day we live is a gift that we often forget to be thankful for.  We become so busy with the hundreds of tasks that we have to do that we lose sight of the fact that life is a blessing.  Matisse wrote these words after a second operation from which he did not expect to wake.  Even though he was physically in pain, he found joy in being able to paint.  Each day is a gift.  Are you living it to the fullest?  Are you grateful for the life you have?  Does your creative work bring you joy?

La Musique

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Maya Angelou

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

— Maya Angelou

American Author

1928 - 

How do you define success?  Many people define success as wealth and fame, but these are illusionary and short-lived.  Just think of the stories you have read of rich people who are now homeless.  

(2011)

I think Maya Angelou is on the right track when she says that success is about liking and loving yourself and what you do.  As creative artists we may never have fame or fortune, but if we like what we do, we are truly blessed.  Do you love what you do?  Do you enjoy painting, writing, acting or singing?  And most creative leaders will answer that they do love what they do.  The more difficult questions is:  do you like yourself?  

Happiness is accepting who you are, no matter what the warts, scars and pimples.  Some people live a lifetime and never learn to like themselves.  We are all humans and we have all made mistakes.  Maya Angelou describes many of the challenges and mistakes of her life in her six autobiographies, including her rape at age eight as well as working as a teenage prostitute. Today Angelou at 83 is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, actress and filmmaker.  Dr. Angelou has received over 30 honorary degrees.  In 2011 President Barack Obama presented Maya Angelou with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Have you learned to like yourself?  To accept who you are and from where you have come?  True success is about loving oneself.  

Here is Maya Angelou reading her poem, And Still I Rise.

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