Art and the Artist-Sydney Taylor

“The artist speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives, to our sense of pity and beauty, and pain.” –Joseph Conrad


There truly is mystery and beauty everywhere in our ordinary lives, and art serves to remind us of that so that we don't forget and miss the wonderful things that happen everyday. Some of the best things that happen in our lives aren't big moments and wouldn't necessarily be considered great on someone else's standard when they think about it, but an artist can help to show an audience why the little things are sometimes the most important.


"Degas's Laundresses" by Eavan Boland a poem describing a generic chore in women's everyday lives, laundry and specifically bed sheets. There is importance in every small thing that people do, and Boland shared through this poem the beauty in an underappreciated task performed usually by women. "[Boland] is a feminist and a poet but,... not a feminist poet." This poem still took a partially feminist stance in exemplifying the subtle glamor in household tasks completed everyday but taken for granted in light of the blatant glamor of the life of the man of the household. This poem displays the beauty in a small task that only those who typically perform the task would see.

Ekphrasis-Sydney Taylor

The sun shined lazily through the leaves
The wind drifted between blades of grass

Boats drifted by slowly
Children played while their dogs followed
Watchfully

The soft buzz of Sunday chatter on the air
Only she was still

Glancing at her surroundings indifferently
Searching for something to interest her

Seurat, Georges. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. 1884. N.p.

Art and the Artist- Max Kaufman

“The artist speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives, to our sense of pity and beauty, and pain.” –Joseph Conrad

I chose to read the poem "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence. In this poem Lawrence is speaking to everyone's inner child; not in a playful, but in a rather nostalgic way. One of the stanzas in his poem really grabs me. The second stanza really captures the beauty of youth and the pain I think we all feel from growing older and leaving youth behind. It is clear that Lawrence is speaking to our sense of pain in this poem. In art, the artist is, in effect, creating a collage of emotions. This is what makes art so special, for me art is a very emotional experience, both for the audience and the artist. As we see in "Sonny's Blues" the true art is formed from intense emotions. While I am not a drug addict, I can relate. When I am playing an instrument, regardless of what that instrument might be, it isn't until I throw myself into the song that the music really starts to take life.

Art and the Artist - Gates Sweeney

“Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.”  –Amy Lowell

       I'm a logical thinker, and I like to use basic reasoning to make decisions and theories about life and society. When it comes to art, I like to keep things simple. Lowell quotes me almost verbatim on my opinion of art. I believe that art is an expression of man and that is all. In D.H. Lawrence's "Piano," the feeling of nostalgia is captured when someone hears a sound they haven't heard in such a long time. It takes him back to his childhood when his mother used to play him the piano and sing songs. He describes how he sat under the piano pressing the feet of his mother. It reminds him of his current pain and how he wishes he could go back. This piece of art allows Lawrence to express his emotions, good and bad, with great detail to convey how he feels to the reader as accurately as possible. That is what I think art is.

Art and the Artist- Isabelle Rinker

“In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption.” –Raymond Chandler

I believe art's purpose, in all its forms, is expression. A quality of redemption comes with that. Artists express themselves through words, paintings, films, etc. to demonstrate how they feel. Many forms of art are narrative, telling stories during which characters play the "hero" to demonstrate qualities of redemption. "The common man" is a theme quite often in art (especially literature in film) to portray that anyone can be a hero. This is a common theme because many can relate to a theme as such. Although art is not reality (and furthermore can often be described as the complete opposite), certain forms of art were meant to be realistic, and as we, as a general population, tend to enjoy stories of perseverance involving themes such as the "common man" that we are so easily able to relate to, art tends to lean in that direction, as art serves as that break from reality where we can indulge ourselves in something "realistic", however much more intriguing than our real lives. For example, I very much enjoyed watching the "Gossip Girl" TV series because the scandalous lives of Upper East Siders seemed much more interesting than my own.

Art and the Artist - Kate Sommer

“Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.”  –Amy Lowell

The poem I chose was "Piano" by D.H. Lawrence. This poem in particular discusses memories from the writer's childhood and how he feels now and how he misses the past. I believe that this piece in particular connects well to the quote because he expressing not only how he felt then but how the world now is effecting him and how that makes him miss his childhood that he was reminiscing about. I agree with the statement that art allows and helps people express themselves in a variety of ways whether the subject be childhood memories or current events. Personally, I paint to relieve stress and create a little peace in my always hectic world. Some, for example in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, might create art to escape from a mental world or to express themselves in a way that they can’t do out loud. The journal that the narrator keeps is her way of talking about this wallpaper and getting away from the restrictions set upon her by her husband and his sister. She uses writing as an expression of the feelings she is having and the way they are affecting her in everyday life. People create art for many different reasons but I believe that the main one is so that they are able to express themselves and their personalities in many different days.

Art and the Artist - Avery Brown

I chose Seamus Heaney's poem Postscript. The quote, "The artist speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives, to our sense of pity and beauty, and pain”, (Joseph Conrad) resonates with my opinion on art and life, as well as its relevant to the poem. In the first line of the poem Heaney suggest to the read to travel, to go somewhere beautiful, but in this case, its to travel out west. Heaney talks about the simplicity but beauty of "...when the wind/And the light are working off each other/So that the ocean on one side is wild/With foam and glitter..." Creating the basis for a mental picture in the readers mind, Heaney take the simple nature of sea foam and the windy waves and making them into something purely intricate for us to admire and appreciate. The author intimates our curiosity and admiration for and of nature and the world around us. Conrad says, "The artist speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder", so we have that aspect of joy and curiosity but then goes on say, "...to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives..." as if to say that there is still many things we don't know about the world we live in, but the statement is quite true. We can see these points in the poem. In line 12 Heaney states, "Useless to think you'll park or capture it/More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there," He might be referring to the waves and crests in line 11, or some deep philosophical idea that I can't wrap my head around at the present time. But he says that line almost mocking the fact that we probably wont grasp the idea he's referring to.

Art and the Artist- Kayla Beebout

“In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption.” –Raymond Chandler

              Art, ultimately, is a human expression.  As such, it carries all of the burdens and memories that we do.  The fact that out of our pain and the ugliness in our lives we can create something beautiful and awe-inspiring is redemptive.  In that moment when someone is appreciating a work of art, they are not thinking about everything bad the artist did; and if they are thinking about any obstacles the artist faced or pain they experienced, it is only so that they can appreciate the artwork in an even deeper way.  What would art be without that quality of redemption?  It gives us hope that beauty can be found even in the darkest of places.

               The poem “Singapore” by Mary Oliver shows exactly that.  The speaker of the poem saw a woman working in a Singapore airport and found it disgusting and “dull enough” (l. 18), but at the same time she finds beauty in this woman.  She says “I don’t doubt for a moment that she loves her life” (l. 22), a statement which shows us the other side of this woman.  Normally, if we saw a woman doing that work in an airport, we would not assume that she loves her life, but rather that it is dreary, dull, and difficult.  However, Oliver chooses to highlight the beauty in this woman’s life and demeanor, and goes on to say that “If the world were only pain and logic, who would want it? /Of course, it isn’t” (ll. 26-27).  Thus, she points out the redeeming qualities of life.  The mere fact that we want it and try to keep it, she says, is proof that it can’t be all bad. 

The story “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin shows this redemption in an even clearer way.  Sonny, a recovering heroin addict, has only ever found release in his music.  It was a way to keep him away from drugs, and when that didn’t work, it was a way for him to recover and learn how to deal with life.  Baldwin’s speaker says, “Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did” (¶ 236).  This brings the redemption not just to Sonny, but to everyone else in the room.  He is trying to free everyone from the pain in their lives, trying to save them from what he went through.  If he succeeds, then he will be free, as well.  If he doesn’t, he won’t.  However, the effort in and of itself is redemptive, because it is an effort to save someone other than himself.  And since this effort is made through music, the message Baldwin is trying to get across is the redemptive power of art. 

In the story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, this power is taken to a more spiritual level.  The narrator is originally very prejudiced against Robert, a blind man, and treats him with little to no respect.  However, he is able to connect to Robert through a cathedral, a place to worship God.  When asked about religion, he said, “I guess I don’t believe in it.  In anything.  Sometimes it’s hard” (¶ 103).  When he starts to draw the cathedral, though, he begins to understand Robert’s perception of the world, and is redeemed from his previous ignorance by understanding.

Writing can certainly be called art, and its words, images, and themes are filled with the qualities of redemption.

 

Art and the Artist- Skylar Mays

"In everything that could be called art there is a quality of redemption."- Raymond Chandler
I agree with this statement because there is always a reason behind making art and in some way or another there is always an aspect of redemption. In "Kubla Khan" the speaker has a vision of a maid singing about a mountain, but this song gave him hope. And whoever heard this song would notice the war beginning to happen and warn others of Kubla Khan and all he trouble/ pain he has caused/ was going to cause in battle. In "Sonny's Blues," Sonny uses jazz music to redeem himself in the eyes of his brother. The narrator sees through the performance that Sonny has truly struggled. He wasn't being rebellious or defiant or even dumb for wanting to become a jazz musician. He redeemed himself in the sense that, despite everything that has happened, he was trying to become more than what others thought of him. I think this notion is prevalent outside of these stories as well. Break-up songs today can show that the relationship was worth it, or that they wasted their time and can move on now. Each redeem the actions of the artist. Modern paintings show and redeem that things can be beautiful and simple. Art made in general can show someone that the artist is capable of succeding or excedding their expectations. It redeems what others think about them.

Art and the Artist - Josh Ehl

“Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.”  With those words, acclaimed poet and author Amy Lowell struck true. Expression is the simplest base upon which the creation of art is built. It is what at heart drives every artist. Sure, artists create things to showcase the natural beauty inherent in them or to communicate an idea to an audience, but at the root of any motivation a artist may have is the desire for expression.

Seamus Heaney's Requiem for the Croppies is a perfect example of this idea. The poem is about a group of Irish revolutionaries known as "Croppies" (due to the fact that they cropped their hair) who attempted to rise up and gain independence from the English during the revolutionary period of the late 18th century. Riding on the coat tails of the successful revolutions in America and France, these mostly poor farmers launched a campaign of their own against their imperialist oppressors. Armed almost entirely with farm implements, the Croppies were eventually massacred by British artillery at the Battle of Vinegar Hill. Heaney's poem details this short lived revolution beautifully. But his poem does more than that. It also expresses his pride in his Irish origins and in the revolutionary spirit the Irish have sown throughout history, be it in 1798, 1916, or 1966. The poem is all about expression, and it reflects this in its verse. 

Michael Dickson 9/15 blog post

I read the poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, I believe that art can be interpreted in numerous ways, and nowhere is this more prevalent than in this poem, in which a blackbird symbolizes thirteen different things throughout the poem.

Blog Post 9/15/2015 - Anthony Tamasi

Art is an important aspect of our collective human culture, and the differing cultures throughout the world, signifying continuity and contrast between different regions. However, art exists as a form of expression for all humans, no matter the region they come from or where they end up, or even what language they speak. “Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in," as Amy Lowell says it. Art is an expression and represents so much more of the world, like in To Paint a Waterlily by Ted Hughes. Hughes' poem describing the painting shows that so much more exists in nature than what meets the eye. Not only is it a small pond with waterlilies on the surface, but it also serves as "The flies' furious area," where the dragonflies do battle above the water. Lowell also supports her assertion within her poem The Artist. She begins by saying the artist is useless (ll. 1-5), but ends the poem with the realization that the artist, in reality, is beautiful and almost above her in a sense (ll. 17-19). Art does not exist just to look pretty, art is a product and vehicle of imagination and expression.  

Blog post prompt for 9/15 - Emily Salamanca

"The artist speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives, to our sense of pity and beauty, and pain.” –Joseph Conrad

Art both reflects reality and puts the world in our own perspective. In this statement, Conrad believes similar to me because he says that art lets us express our feelings, while legitimizing our feelings as well. Art shows how filled we are with  sentiment and allows us to show off our magnitude of emotion. Similarly, in D.H. Lawrence's "Piano," he describes how his nostalgia weakens him. Lawrence states, "Down the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child / for the past." His primary emotion, nostalgia, leads to a secondary emotion, sadness. The poem immortalizes his feelings through words, so that the reader can too feel his pain. The poem presents the past as idealistic and beautiful, "...the glamour / Of childish days is upon me..." (ll. 10-11). He conveys his emotion to the reader, who then takes of the child's persona. Another example of this transfer of emotions through art is in "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver. In the story, the narrator conveys his sense of wonder and awe at the cathedrals on TV to the blind man, who can not experience those feelings from sight. Instead, the blind man become awe-struck when the narrator begins drawing the cathedral with the blind man's hand on his own hand. The narrator experiences a 'eureka' moment when the blind man understand the power and beauty of the cathedral. In both cases, in "Cathedral" and "Piano," the artist's emotions are transferred to another person through art. Conrad generalizes the artist to speak for an entire community and I believe that art can express the feelings of a single person and then place those emotions in the heart of another.

Ekphrasis Challenge-Isabelle Rinker

Razumovskaya, Anna. Firebird.
Ordinary Woman

She was not an ordinary woman.
She was marvelous.
She was free.
She was a firebird.

There were those who doubted her,
Those who scoffed at her efforts.
But she knew her worth.
She was a firebird.

She was not an ordinary woman.
She was strong.
She was courageous.
She was a firebird.

No one could touch her,
For she was a firebird.

Ekphrasis Challenge - Ben Grossman

Gogh, Vincent Van. Starry Night Over the Rhone. 1888. Musee D'Orsay, Paris.

All is quiet, 

everything is still.

Night has descended upon the town.

The boats are docked,

the sailors have retired for the night.

The fruits of their labor to be sold tomorrow. 

A lone couple wanders the riverside aimlessly,

their path lit by the starry night and the lights of the houses.

The town sleeps now,

but come morning the town will be as lively as ever.

The streets will be filled with people,

the town filled with the hum of work.

But for now there is only silence.

Ekphrasis Challenge - Josh Ehl

Sirens and shouts fill the air,

Throngs of people pack the streets,

Chaos and claustrophobia descend like a fog.

They clog every pore, fill every orifice,

choking, smothering, strangling the city

There is no question of the power of the state.

Metal beasts thunder down the street.

Judge, jury, and executioner,

They stand poised to spew fire.

None dare draw their ire,

Nor challenge the finality of a gunshot.

Suddenly, steel screams in protest as

One after another the behemoths grind to a halt.

A lone man, his groceries in hand, 

Stands in opposition to the oppressors.

His stone faced defiance speaks louder than any words

Then a shot rings out

It is not the sound of gunfire opening,

But rather of film winding, a shutter closing,

And changing the world.

Ekphrasis Challenge- Max Kaufman

Wyeth, Andrew. Christina's World. 1948. Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

The Meadow

Green grass and a grey horizon,

the meadow awaits movement.

A distant home offers hopes of the past

as the girl crawls forward towards inevitability.

With each movement the house moves closer.

Clawing her way through the lush green,

hopeful she remains.

But with every pull the hill grows steeper.

With every motion the horizon grows dull.

With every breath the grass grows greener,

And with every effort the house becomes null.

Ekphrasis Challenge- Skylar Mays

There was something about her,

But I didn’t know what.

I observed everything about her.

Her skin glowed and her back straight.

I wanted more.

I knew everything about her,

Her hair fell flat and her nose was thin.

Perfect in every way.

And yet, there was something wrong.

Her smile was soft, sweet almost,

But her eyes cut through my soul.

She sat so patiently, giving nothing away.

The world was moving on without her,

Yet here she stayed.

There was something about her,

And it left me wondering so much more.

"Mona Lisa Dig Unearths Tombs, Crypt." Adelaide Now. The Advertiser. Web. 1 Sept. 2015