There are many theories about art, from philosophers, academics, critics and others, but for the artist there is only one practice, and it cannot be put into words.
Dana Bate
*******************
Hello Bridgeville, Delaware
*******************************
I knew a bass violinist who practiced and played as any other musician would. But sometimes I would see him just staring at the instrument from across the room as if it was a strange being filled with silent mysteries.
I had the same experience once when I purchased a charcoal pencil. It wasn't the first charcoal pencil I owned, but it was brand new and before I sharpened it I just stared at it imagining what mysteries were waiting for me from that primitive drawing material wrapped in wood.
A bass violin and a charcoal stick don't have much in common except one thing, potential. The fiddle isn't going to do anything until the musician sets one of those strings vibrating. The stick isn't going to do anything until the artist applies it to a piece of paper. But then the process begins. One tone leads to another, one line to another. Something vital is taking shape. The practice of imagination, of artistic creativity is happening and a dialogue is taking place, fingers are reaching for tones that want to be heard and lines that want to be seen, choices are made that insist on themselves.
For the poet the words the poem needs and insists on live in the great cosmos of language, waiting to be found, plucked and drawn out. The poet is practicing the art of poetry, the dialogue is alive, the lines vibrate.
We do not think of beauty or truth. If the work is done right things happen, they reveal themselves, they live always as potential within the fiddle and the stick, but when drawn out and given wings they attache themselves with a delicate and invisible force to the artist and his world.
Let the critic say what he wants, he will not know the magic moments of conversation between the artist and his work, the divine dialogue that has no name.
Dana Bate
(never give up)
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
Only 6 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
2 comments:
It is there in the gap that the work and creativity lies. That is why people can be found staring into the space where they alone can find the bridges where conception meets reality and becomes achievement.
Or so the Germans would have us believe...
Sometimes I almost feel guilty because I no longer play music and I have never been an artist, a performer, a poet or an author. Just not my niche in life I suppose. I cannot relate to the emotions and realities behind these artistic endeavors, however I realize that although I was not put on this earth to be any kind of an artist, then I must be here for different reasons.
Post a Comment