An artist must have the conception of what he intends to make within himself, be it a picture, carving, music or anything else, it must be there in his own mind complete. The making of it in paint or stone or wood or sound is a little image of the Incarnation, the "Word made flesh." When it is made, its validity as a work of art depends upon whether others recognize in it the expression of something that is inarticulate in themselves.
-- Caryll Houselander (above), from an upublished speech to the Catholic Evidence Guild
I found this remarkable little picture book on the $.25 table at the library. An excerpt:
An artist is like God, but small.
He can't see out of God's creation, for it includes him. . . .
An artist spends his life not only wondering,
but wanting to work like God with what he can command:
his paints.
He tries go copy God's creations.
He tries to shape beauty with his hand.
He tries to make order out of nature . . . .
An artist is like God
as God created him. . . .
he tries to make paint sing.
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13 comments:
+JMJ+
Just when I thought nothing would top the first line of that poem . . . I came to the last line. Brilliant!
There's some great stuff in the middle too that I left out. A real gem of a book.
What a happy find! Are the pictures as evocative as the text?
The pictures are very simple watercolor drawings of an old artist with a white beard painting en plein air. I'd say the text is the stand-out thing.
Have a look here at her "open books": some are quite wonderful.
http://mbgoffstein.com/OpenBooks.htm
Where's the "like" button?
I was thinking the same thing, Rodak!
Some of Goffstein's books are in our Favorites collection, like Fish for Supper and Sleepy People, and A Little Schubert (I suspect you would love that one, Pentimento). But my all-time favorite is Goldie the Dollmaker, which taught me a lot about my self, art, and--this surprised me--homemaking.
Thank you for the tip, GretchenJoanna. I looked at my library's web catalogue and saw that they have many of her books, so I'm going to start checking them out.
I wish I could write simple but beautiful posts like this one. Blessings, TQ
I think the reason it's so simple and beautiful is that I didn't really write it, just quoted from better sources than I.
@Pentimento, thank you for posting the poems pertaining to artists. I especially like the line "he tries to make paint sing." I also enjoy reading your pieces over at Vox Nova. Take care:)
Thank you, dleeo.
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