I'm reading an interesting book, The Art of Description, World into Word, by Mark Doty. He's an American poet and instructor at Rutgars University.
Although the book is written about language, particularly poetry, there are some transferable ideas about creativity within the text.
His opening paragraph resonated... "It sounds a simple thing, to say what you see (or draw or paint). But try to find words for the shades of a mottled sassafras leaf, or the reflectivity of a bay on an August morning, or the very beginnings of desire stirring in the gaze of someone look right into your eyes, and it immediately becomes clear that all we see is slippery, nuanced, elusive."
Who hasn't, artist, writer, song writer, not gone through that difficult part of seeing and translating what we see into something tangible that makes sense, or evokes strong emotions.
Further in the book, "To some degree, the art of description is the art of perception; what is required, in order to say what you see, is enhance attention to that looking, and the more you look, the more information you get. CONTOUR DRAWING is a great example. It involves not merely trying to draw an individual thing but to follow outlines with your pencil. Try this now with just your eyes: look up from this page and choose a line before you, the outer edge of anything and start to follow it; where it intersects with another line you have to choose which way to go. The resulting visual journey can feel intricate indeed; it makes us see the world before us as composed not of discreet things that don't touch, but as a continuous realm of interconnected lines. ... To be better at description, we have to work at attentiveness."
I'm on my way to Key West. I'm currently waiting in Miami for my next flight. I'm attending a literary seminar with the theme 'How the light gets in.' Mark Doty is a presenter and I look forward to listening to him and sharing what I have heard.
See you soon
patti
hi Patti, thanks for this post. Very interesting to me as I am exploring writing for this new creative adventure.
ReplyDelete"How the light get's in", reminds me of "There's a crack in everything and that's where the light get's in." from a song by Leonard Cohen.
Looks like an interesting book. Just need to get my mind to be able to direct some other part of me to communicate.
ReplyDeleteLove Rika's reference to Leonard C. Now there's a Troper!
ReplyDeleteAlso love Doty's reference to what we see in our world is a realm of interconnected lines and how we must work at our attentiveness to better express our observations. I see a real connection to Doty's ideas to making a choice of Tropes and where that can take you! How important it is to choose a trope that an audience can appreciate at some level.
PS... I don't think I know Patti
ReplyDeleteit actually is based on leonard cohen's how the light gets in. he's good friends with pico iyer, who organized this year's seminar.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually taylor's mom - she owns the farm many of you visited.
ReplyDelete