Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

On Art

On Art

It rained yesterday, overcast with a slow and steady drizzle. My dad used to call it a “Farmer’s Rain.”

At the antique show in the Alliant Center I found an Oscar Morten Dog, an Airedale, and it has joined my other two on the shelf.

When I got home I found a blog comment from Leger who gave me a link to a site that was useful. It contained casting marks used by porcelain manufactures throughout the world. I tried to find one for a larger piece of mine that shows a group of figures representing captive Greek women in a slave market. Some of you know I wrote a stage play called Andromache and it reminded me of Pyrrhus choosing her from the spoils of Troy. Anyway the mark wasn’t in there so I went to Google and searched (groups porcelain figurines.) I found one with a similar marking and kept looking. Linda came in and joined my search on her IPOD and found the manufacturer. Here we had purchased this piece twenty years ago in New York without knowing anything about it. I liked it and that was enough.

So I was up late looking at Google, marveling at the one percent of high end items that caught my attention. There were also several nice porcelain figures we saw at the antique show that were quite desirable but well beyond our means. To get something affordable, of a compelling quality, usually requires accepting some breakage or missing body parts. Then they become very affordable. I would rather have such a piece, in need of repair, than a perfect piece of junk.

I think being surrounded by beautiful things, if only photographs and other forms of imagery brings out the artist in you. It is hard to see the beauty in a book at first glance. Even after an initial “Story Read” that animates you and causes one to reflect, that was a good book, there is still much that remains between the covers that was missed the first time through. Templating helps a writer understand why they liked a particular piece of literature. The better we understand why, the easier it becomes to produce something that approaches professional quality literature. It doesn’t just roll off your fingers by accident. It requires an understanding of the science of the genre as well as that illusive quality known as artistic talent.

On U-Tube I watch artists making sculpture and it blows my mind, just like my water color teacher used to do with her leaf painting. It seems to flow so naturally off their fingertips. However, beneath the flow of hands is a reservoir of experience and understanding of the media and understanding of the art and science that surrounds it. As a writer I see it in myself, evidenced by the gulf between what I write and what I read in the work of writers who have risen to the next level. While there is no substitute for talent we need to have a vivid vision in our brains of what we want the end product to look like before we begin writing. Those who aspire to greatness need to study the genre and have a vivid image of what they want to achieve.