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Despite the proliferation of visual media; video, graphic, photo, painting, sculpture, etc., the impact of and desire for the written and spoken word remains relatively undiminished. Not to say that written work is not visual. Even superficially, written work is often presented with some dependence upon beauty of font choice, and/or the character of word arrangement and form to add to interest and the intended expression. Certainly, most literary work of any intensity is meant to communicate visually from the mind of the writer to the reader... through imagery, colorful expression, and other visually related sensation... vision to inspire intensity of feeling. The word "alone" may inspire general feeling and some vision, but an expression such as this example: "sitting
as a single shadow in a darkening too late night, It communicates a more defined representation of "aloneness" than the word alone... a representation of a visual scene, yet no pixels transferred from creator to viewer. One of the most attractive aspects of the written word is the power to create a personal vision in the reader based upon the idea which the writer wants to convey rather than exactly displaying the writer's image for the viewer to see. The writer writes their vision of "aloneness", but the reader must see their own translated vision in order to appreciate real meaning in the words. The reader sees an "aloneness" more specific to them than a totally accurate representation of the writer's vision would be. The translated sensation, ironically, can be more similar and real to the reader primarily because of the inexactness of the communicated vision. The reader knows their own "aloneness" far better than the writer's, therefore their own vision may equate more closely to the writer's in degree of shared passion or emotion. Those who read certainly know, for instance, how a film of a written work most often diminishes more than accentuates the intensity of the work, not just due to synopsizing, but also due to lack of personal translation of the writer's visions back to feelings. The visual is of great importance in written art, but what about the inspiration of the visual in the creation of written work?
In all fairness, this was written to include in a journal at the cabin on the hilltop, where the audience would be familiar with the view... But notice, however, that the writer's impression can often obscure the actual visual character of the phenomenon being written about. My intent with this piece was to display a living struggling reacting impression of the natural scene viewed. But when discussing this piece with others, I had to explain that the "icy scars" were snow-covered peaks, the "needle towers" were trees in the pine forest, "dew collections" were lakes, etc.. Perhaps this piece would have worked better at displaying the impression I intended if the wording had been MORE documentary, or at least included the more familiar explanation. Most often a piece of art of any kind should include enough of the familiar to be recognized, and enough of the abstract to be interesting. A piece can fail, if lacking enough of either of these characters, resulting in something too trite and boring, or something too confusing. Neither hackneyed expressions nor gibberish can inspire a reader to something new. The range between these two ends is huge.
Many of you who are familiar with Spyder's Poetry Empire
are also familiar with the varying backgrounds used on the poetry submission
boards. If you scan through the archives there, quite often striking is how
the work posted appears to be Frequent writers often seek new muses, and the mood that a particular graphic inspires can offer a needed direction. Often this process is not always completely evident to the writer. Looking at the image shown here, a person may be reminded of a certain situation or desired situation simply by the subject matter of the image... say, a romantic dinner or picnic with a loved one. Similarly, a person may be inspired to a certain mood just by a particular character of this image, not necessarily visual... the familiar aroma of the wine, cheese and bread... the texture of the bread, glass, or bottle... the flavors, of course, or the feeling of hunger... or even a mood inspired by the image with unknown connection.
The strength of the mood is what a writer thrives on... that general sensation that drives or enhances ideas. What is it about beauty that inspires us to talk, to tell? Certainly it is not standard beauty only that we seek out as art, entertainment, or inspiration. If we sit down to see a film, we aren't interested only in what's easily defined as beautiful. We seek the irony and joy of comedy, the pain or anger of tragedy, the reward of suffering. People get tired of hearing or talking about roses and rainbows alone. Though this beauty should not be dismissed, it is not all that is inspiring about life. There is art in everything, not only the pleasant. Art is there also in disaster, displeasure, confusion, and derision. Art intends to express the soul of life... and the souls of ourselves who "see". That soul is not purely in the substance, but in the expression. A soul we all see from the isolation of our own perspective, defining us as individuals... in a larger total. As writers, visual representations can be shared frames of reference to project philosophy and ideas otherwise difficult to convey.
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present
vision certainly leads a writer to be frequently inspired by visual art.
The most basic way a visual art form can inspire a writer is when the
writer writes specifically about what they see and feel about a particular
work. For example, John Stone writes the following about the Mona Lisa:
No matter how documentary a written piece is intended, the result
exhibits a representation of the writer's philosophy, ideas, etc..
One of a writer's most familiar subjects is that of a natural scene
or object. A first exercise often given to children in writing,
particularly poetry, is to view something in nature and then write
about it. And what is nature, if not visual art?
Most often a writer's use of the visual is as an aid in displaying a
non-visual idea. The character of the visual scene lends the familiarity
upon which the more difficult idea can be more easily revealed. Because of
this, often a writer looks to a visual work for presentation of that idea,
with no initial intention of representing the visual piece except as a
canvas to display the idea upon.
influenced by the background graphic. A page
with a waterfall inspires pieces about waterfalls, running water, etc.. But
even more, the mood of the graphic seems to effect the focus or mood of the
posted work.
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