Dear Reader,
Because I make art, as well as write prose and poetry, I crave
companionship with others who create in both forms. It is amazing
how many of us are out there, going to each other’s exhibitions
and reading each other’s work. Conversations are stimulating
and supportive. It is exciting to read about well-known artists/writers
who may have excelled in one craft but continued to practice
the other. Keeping good company may help get me through the
lean times, but whether sitting with a notebook or keyboard
or prepping a canvas, I am nestled in necessary solitude. Sometimes
Inspiration will crisscross herself, when a painting generates
a poem, and they become one expression. I call it “reciprocity”
(Judy’s Journal, 2007, November).
Poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) was born and is buried in
Worcester, Massachusetts, where I live. She is a looming presence
among poets, no matter where one might be. It is less well-known
that Bishop was a painter, too. In 2011, there was a centennial
exhibition of her artwork and some objects she collected at
the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York City. My husband and I
brought a copy of that year’s The Worcester Review,
with its feature, “Bishop’s Century: Her Poems and
Art,” to give to the gallerist, who reciprocated by gifting
us with the exhibition catalog, Elizabeth Bishop: Objects
& Apparitions, which is chock full of gorgeous images
and three essays.
Joelle Bielle’s contribution was, “Three-Fourth’s
Painter,” which jettisoned Bishop to the top of my “good
company” list for artists/writers to keep. Her advice to
painters: “DON’T copy pictures! It’s a good way
to find out how to use paints, they say-but it’s much more
fun and I like the results much better if you do something from
life…It is fun, isn’t it-I’m always completely
happy when I do get around to painting a small picture-whereas
writing is hell, most of the time.” Amen, Elizabeth!
Bishop traveled and lived in other countries. Early on, she
made paintings that corresponded to her poems. She sometimes
illustrated drafts of her poems. Bielle writes, “The interplay
is a form of re-vision, of a writer-painter approaching her
subject from different angles.” Rather than calling them
“reciprocal,” Bielle calls them “companion pieces”
and illustrations. Poet Marianne Moore “informed Bishop
that her descriptions are like drawings, and she wondered where
Bishop should divide her energies. ‘You are three-fourths
painter, always in whatever you write.’”
The thought of practicing either writing or art has crossed
my mind. When I returned to painting in 1998, I did so with
trepidation because I was well into working to establish myself
as a poet and writer. Beside the expense of artmaking, another
cost was apparent: time. If I spent days making paintings, were
poems being ignored? All this money on materials, when poetry
was free and in my head! But then came the day, after decades
away from a palette, I set up my easel, mixed my colors and
wept.
