Rafael Alberti

"In the very beginning I looked to painting as the medium for addressing concerns in shapes and colors.  Then it was poetry where these concerns found expression through the medium of word and metaphor."

Rafael Alberti

Spanish Painter, Poet

1902 - 1999

I am fascinated by creative leaders who use more than one medium to express themselves.  Rafael Alberti was one of those who was at home both in the visual arts and the written word.  The need to create and communicate one's feelings transcends the medium.  Some writers work in short stories, novels, poetry and plays.  Some artists paint, draw and sculpt.  And then there are the writers who also paint and the painters who also write.  Or the musicians who paint and the actors who play music.  We all have the urge to express ourselves.  The medium of paint, words or music is just the vehicle to carry the communication.

What vehicles do you like to use to express your artistic desires?  Poetry?  Music?  Painting?  Acting?  Plays?  Dancing?  Sculpting?  Novels?  Short Stories?  Have you stepped outside your comfort zone and tried something new?  

Medardo Rosso

"What the artist must aim at above all else is this: to produce, by any process whatever, a work which by the life and humanity emanating from it communicates to the beholder . . . ."

— Medardo Rosso

Italian Sculptor

1858 - 1928

Ecce Puer
Behold the Boy
(1906)

Who is the audience for your creative work?  This is a question I have struggled with for years.  Is there an audience for my work?  Is there someone who understands what I am communicating?  First, poetry has a very small readership in this country.  So the audience from which I can draw my readership is very small.  Second, finding this readership is very difficult.  One would hope that one could find a readership among other poets, but there are many people who write poetry who have never read it.  Third, what I write does not fit within the historical categories of poetry.  I don't rhyme or follow western forms.  I did spend seven years writing and studying Japanese haiku which many in the west perceive as an exercise for school children.  So after 35 years of writing, I have yet to find an audience for my writing who will stand in line for six hours to buy my next book.  In fact, there are days I can't give it away.  But I don't let the lack of an audience stop me from writing.  I keep writing and believing that one day someone will read and appreciate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The purpose of life is not to be happy.  It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that  you have lived and lived well."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

American Poet, Speaker, Writer

1803 - 1882

Too often people spend their time trying to find happiness.  Instead, they should be seeking ways to make a difference in the lives of others.  Happiness is never permanent.  We may experience moments of happiness, but we will not stay in that frame of mind.  Seek instead to be useful — to help others in their time of need.  If we focus on helping others and worry less about our own happiness, we will wake up one day and find that we are at peace with ourselves.

Why were you born?  What is your purpose for living on this planet?  When you reach the end of the road one day and look back across your life, what is the legacy you want to leave behind?  I believe we each have a reason for being born and part of our mission in life is to discover our purpose for being.  How would the world be different if you had never lived?  Ponder that question.  How many lives have you already touched?  A few years ago someone told me that I had inspired him to become a nursing home administrator.  I did not remember the young man, but he had heard me speak and was inspired.  And I sure you have made a difference in the lives of people you never met.  Has someone been inspired by a poem, a story or a novel you wrote?  Has someone been inspired by a picture you painted?  Maybe someone bought a painting from you and hung it in their living room.  And every time they look at it, they experience a moment of happiness. 

Here is a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Maybe it will inspire you years after he wrote it.

The Apology

Think me not unkind and rude,

That I walk alone in grove and glen;

I go to the god of the wood

To fetch his word to men.

Tax not my sloth that I

Fold my arms beside the brook;

Each cloud that floated in the sky

Writes a letter in my book.

Chide me not, laborious band,

For the idle flowers I brought;

Every aster in my hand

Goes home loaded with a thought.

There was never mystery,

But 'tis figured in the flowers,

Was never secret history,

But birds tell it in the bowers.

One harvest from thy field

Homeward brought the oxen strong;

A second crop thine acres yield,

Which I gather in a song.

Jonathan Hull

"Without art; without paintings, books, sculpture and music, the human soul would be quite impenetrable, don't you think?"

— Jonathan Hull

American Novelist, Journalist

Can you imagine a world without art?  No books to read.  No writers of poetry.  No paintings.  No sculpture.  No music.  No theater.  No movies.  No stories.  Could you live in such a world?  And yet there are people who live lives without creating and appreciating the world of art.  They have no interest in books, paintings or music.  I for one could not live in such a world. 

I have a strong need to create a work of art.  To write a poem.  To sing a song.  To paint a picture.  To tell a story.  Without creative work, my soul would die a slow death.  Celebrate the fact that you have the ability to appreciate great works of art.  Believe that you have the skill to create great works of art.

Fernando Del Paso

Venus de Milo
Ancient Greek Statue

"Literature and music exist in time: they have a beginning and an end.  Painting and sculpture exist in space. . . . Where does the Venus de Milo begin: in her navel, in her breasts, or in her head?  Where does an abstract painting begin: in the lower left corner, or in the center?"

— Fernando Del Paso

Mexican Novelist, Painter and Poet

1935 -

Back of
Venus de Milo

De Paso has raised a very interesting question:  where does a painting or a sculpture begin?  When analyzing a painting, people often identify at what point the eye is drawn into the painting.  At what point do we the viewer enter into the picture?  But that point of entry is not the beginning of the painting.  In fact, paintings and sculptures have no beginning.  They just are here and now.

The flip side of this question is:  where does the novel exist?  In the head of the writer?  On the pages of the book it is printed in?  In cyberspace somewhere?  Or in the head of the reader?  And what novel are we talking about?  Is the novel that is in the writer's head the same as the novel on the page?  Is the novel that is in the reader's head the same as what is in the writer's imagination?  

Fernando Del Paso

How many times have you as a reader altered the novel on the page by changing the looks of a character or the physical location of the story.  Unlike the painting which is concrete and visual, the novel is nebulous and changing.  Yes, we can impose our stories upon the painting, but the painting still exists outside of us.  We change the novel as soon as it enters our brain.  We have altered the story as imagined by the novelist.

Have you ever wished that a novel would not end?  You may even have slowed down your reading so that the ending would be delayed?  Novels exist in time and have a beginning and a ending, but we can continue to revisit them through our memory. 

Weldon Kees

"Modern society pushes people in the groove.  Although I was always interested in music and painting as well as poetry, at first I thought I had to concentrate on writing. . . one thing only.  But then the urge to paint was so strong I just went ahead and started oils.  And I didn't give up my writing — one did not exclude the other."

Weldon Kees

American Poet, Painter, Composer, Short Story Writer

1914 - 1955

As a creative leader, do you limit you creative expression to one type of art?  The common myth is that people can only do one thing.  Write poetry?  Paint portraits?  Compose music?  Write novels?  The myth is that we should focus on only one form of expression; otherwise, we will dilute our creativity not not do anything well.  We have become a society of specialists.  Painters should not write.  Writers should not play a musical instrument.  Actors should not write.

Kees believed that he could both paint and write.  "He said, "Shifting from one to the other I don't get into periods of absolute sterility that are often experienced by writers who just write, or painters who just paint."

Are you suffering from writer's block?  Pick up a paint brush and explore the world of color. Are you bored with painting?  Pick up a pen and write about your feelings.  Flipping back and forth between various art forms will keep you and your ideas fresh.

Here is a poem by Weldon Kees.

The Upstairs Room

It must have been in March the rug wore through.

Now the day passes and I stare

At warped pine boards my father's father nailed,

At the twisted grain.  Exposed, where emptiness allows,

Are the wormholes of eighty years; four generations' shoes

Stumble and scrape and fall

To the floor my father stained,

The new blood streaming from his head.  The drift

Of autumn fires and a century's cigars, that gun's

Magnanimous and brutal smoke, endure.

In March the rug was ragged as the past.  The thread

Rots like the lives we fasten on.  Now it is August,

And the floor is blank, worn smooth,

And, for my life, imperishable.

Sidney Nolan

"Painting is an extension of man's means of communication.  As such, it's pure, difficult, and wonderful."

— Sidney Nolan

Australian Artist

1917 - 1992

All the arts are about communication.  Whether you paint, write, sing or act, you are involved in the process of communicating.  And communication is one of the most difficult aspects of being human.  We never seem to get it right.  Marriages break up over the inability to communicate.  Children don't speak to their parents.  Bosses fail to inspire their employees.

Painting, poetry and novels are highly specialized forms of communication — an attempt by the artist to tell the world what he is feeling.  And sometimes he is successful and sometimes he is not.  Take this painting, Death of Sergeant Kennedy at Stringbark Creek, by Sidney Nolan.  What does it communicate to you?  If I asked 10 different people the same question, I bet I would get 10 different answers.  Communication is very difficult.  If it was easy, we probably would not have a need for creative leaders who work hard at communicating.




Even artists and writers don't always know what they are communicating with their creative work.  Paintings, poetry and novels are often communicating on multiple levels with multiple messages.  The painter, poet and novelist are aware of some of these messages but not all of them.  That is what makes art so fascinating.




If you are interested in feedback from your audience, don't ask whether they liked the work or if it was any good.  Ask: "What does my painting, poem or story communicate to you?"  Then listen with your heart and soul.  You may be amazed at what others see in your work.

Flannery O'Connor

"Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days."

— Flannery O'Connor

American Novelist

1925 - 1964

Do you remember your childhood?  Some people block out memories of their childhood?  Others have a difficult time forgetting even the most painful memories.  As artists and writers we can mine our past experiences for inspiration for our art.  What events out of your childhood can you use in your stories or your art?  Remember art should transform the actual events into more than just the mere facts like spinning straw into gold.




Here are links to three story poems where I transformed childhood stories and events into more than family history — where I discovered a truth greater than facts.




Mary Lou

http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Mary_Lou.html



Sister

http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Sister.html




Brother Al

http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Brother_Al.html

Rabindranath Tagore

"Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark."

— Rabindranath Tagore

Bengali Poet, Novelist, Musician, Painter, Playwright

1861 - 1941

Do you believe in your artistic talent?  Do you have faith in your creativity?  Do you let your creative light shine or do you hide it under a bushel basket and refuse to share it with the world?  Creative leaders need to have the faith that they are on the right path.  Even in those darkest hours before the dawn, you need to understand the sun will rise again — that your creative work is important.  Don't give up on yourself.  Don't give up on the work you do.  You are unique and special.  No one else can create the paintings, the poems or the novels that you can create.  If you don't use your creative gift to produce art, the world will have lost much.  So pick up your pen and write.  Pick up your brush and paint.  Pick up your guitar and sing.

Here is a poem by Tagore:

My Song

by Rabindranath Tagore

This song of mine will wind its music around you,

my child, like the fond arms of love.

The song of mine will touch your forehead

like a kiss of blessing.

When you are alone it will sit by your side and

whisper in your ear, when you are in the crowd

it will fence you about with aloofness.

My song will be like a pair of wings to your dreams,

it will transport your heart to the verge of the unknown.

It will be like the faithful star overhead

when dark night is over your road.

My song will sit in the pupils of your eyes,

and will carry your sight into the heart of things.

And when my voice is silenced in death,

my song will speak in your living heart.

Rudyard Kipling

"If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten."

— Rudyard Kiplng

English Novelist and Poet

1865 - 1936

Do you love history?  Do you read history?  Or could you care less about history?  Do you incorporate history into your writing and paintings?  I believe creative leaders need to study history?  Artists should study art history and many do.  Writers should study the lives of writers.  English degrees tend to focus on the literature and studying the literature.  Writing degrees tend to focus on the writing.  But few writers study the history of writing, the history of writers, the history of words or the history of publishing.  I have met many wanna-be poets who haven't even read other poets. They would never consider studying the history of poetry.

But understanding literature, art and theater requires more than studying the history of the arts.  We need to study literature, art and theater in the context of the times they were created.  We need to study the social, political and economic histories.  We need to read biographies and memoirs. 

Writers, artists and actors are people of their times.  They creative works contain the same beliefs, hopes and biases that can be found in the rest of their society.  Novels written in other times and places will teach you one perspective of that society.  Their paintings are minature history books.



So I encourage you to read a biography of a favorite writer, actor or artist.  Immerse yourself in the history of another time and place.  What was Paris like during the time of the Impressionists?  What was New York like during the 1950's and the beats?



One of my favorite movies is The Man Who Would Be King, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine, directed by John Huston and based on the novel by Rudyard Kliping.  The movie takes us to another place and time and gives us a glimpse of a world not our own.  Here are some scenes from the movie.

Stanley Kunitz

"The poem in the head is always perfect.  Resistance begins when you try to convert it into language."

— Stanley Kunitz

American Poet

1905 - 2006

This statement by Stanley Kunitz sums up one of the key challenges that every creative leader faces.  What we create in the physical world never is as good as what we imagine in our minds.  Most artists, writers and performers are never satisfied with the end product because we see something different in our mind's eye.  And we have to learn to accept that it is okay to be imperfect.  Perfection is unachievable.  In fact, as humans what makes us interesting is our flaws.  And the same thing is true of our art.  It is the mistakes that make our art unique.  If the work we created was perfect, then every piece of art would look the same.  It is our flaws and weaknesses that make our art uniquely ours.  Our imperfections help make the art perfect.

Here is a poem by Stanley Kunitz.



Passing Through



By Stanley Kunitz



     -- on my seventy-ninth birthday



Nobody in the widow's household

ever celebrated anniversaries.

In the secrecy of my room

I would not admit I cared

that my friends were given parties.

Before I left town for school

my birthday went up in smoke

in a fire at City Hall that gutted

the Department of Vital Statistics.

If it weren't for a census report

of a five-year-old White Male

sharing my mother's address

at the Green Street tenement in Worcester

I'd have no documentary proof

that I exist.  You are the first,

my dear, to bully me

into these festive occasions.



Sometimes, you say, I wear

an abstracted look that drives you

up the wall, as though it signified

distress or disaffection.

Don't take it so to heart.

Maybe I enjoy not-being as much

as being who I am.  Maybe

it's time for me to practice

growing old.  The way I look

at it, I'm passing through a phase:

gradually I'm changing to a word.

Whatever you choose to claim

of me is always yours;

nothing is truly mine

except my name.  I only

borrowed this dust.

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Self-Portrait

(1804)

"A painter can turn pennies into gold, for all subjects are capable of being transformed into poems."

— Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

French Artist

1780 - 1867

The Valpincon Bather

(1806)

Some people believe that art is only about painting beauty.  Other people believe that writers should not write about certain subjects.   And still others seek to censor artists and writers.  Think about books that have been banned in school districts or art that is considered pornographic.  The American Library Association publishes online a list of 100 novels that have been banned from time to time.

What subjects do you avoid painting or writing about?  In what ways do you censor your own creative tendencies.  Do you paint to please others?  Do you avoid writing about certain events because it could hurt others?  How do you choose the subjects that you paint or write about?  Or does the subject choose you?  Do write about what interests you or do you write what you think the world wants to read?  Consider how many writers now write about vampires since the success of Ann Rice.  Or how many writers follow in the footsteps of the Harry Potter books.

Do you think Ingres is correct?  Can a painter can turn pennies into gold?  Can a writer make any subject poetic?  

Louise de Broglie

(1845)

Theodore Roethke

"Being, not doing, is my first joy."

— Theodore Roethke

American Poet

1908 - 1963

 

I must confess that being is very difficult for me.  For years I have been caught up in the culture of doing.  Setting goals and working to achieve my goals.  I find it very difficult to sit and just be.  I must at the very least doodle and who knows maybe my doodles will one day be famous.  We can dream can't we!  If I go on vacation, it often takes me a week to relax and forget my day job.  But I still feel I must be doing something.  Writing.  Drawing.  Producing something.  Rarely can I just be.

How about you?  Are you caught up in the culture of doing or have you learned like Roethke to enjoy just being?

Here is my favorite Theodore Roethke poem.  I love the first three lines.  This is a poem to be read outloud.  Listen to the interaction of sounds.

The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.

I learn by going where I have to go.



We think by feeling. What is there to know?

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.



Of those so close beside me, which are you?

God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,

And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?

The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.



Great Nature has another thing to do

To you and me, so take the lively air,

And, lovely, learn by going where to go.



This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.

What falls away is always. And is near.

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I learn by going where I have to go.

Sara Teasdale

"It is my heart that makes my songs . . . ."

— Sara Teasdale

American Poet

1884 - 1933

Our most original creative work comes from the heart.  The heart produces work that is more authentic than work produced by the analytical brain.  Analytical stories and poems fail to connect with the hearts of the readers and leave them wanting more.  Creative work that does not come from the heart can be cold and uncaring.  You will do your best work if it comes from the heart.  

Debt

by Sara Teasdale

What do I owe to you

     Who loved me deep and long?

You never gave my spirit wings

     Nor gave my heart a song.

But, oh, to him I loved,

     Who loved me not at all,

I owe the little open gate

     That led through heaven's wall.

(Originally published in Poetry, March 1914.)

William Baziotes

"Each painting has its own way of evolving . . . When the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself."

— William Baziotes

American Painter

1912 - 1963

I know this is the way a poem happens for me.  I don't know what the poem is about until I'm finished writing.  The poem evolves as I write.  I know there are writers who outline everything they do.  They know what they are going to write every step of the way.  For me, it does not work.  I like not knowing.  The excitement is in the writing.  The same thing happens when I write a story.  Only at the end do I know what I was writing about.

Cyclops

(1947)

My drawing of masks is the same way.  I never know what a mask will look like until I am finished.  Art for me is also about discovery.  The joy is in the process of creation.  The joy is in not knowing where you are going.  

When I travel I am the same way.  I want to discover new places.  My wife and I once were on a trip with another couple.  They had everything planned down to the minute and became upset if we deviated from the plan because it put them behind schedule.  I can't travel that way.  The joy is in the discovery.

One of the things I have learned over the years is that writers have many different ways of working.  What works for one person does not work for another.  How do you work?  Do you map out your story in advance of writing it?  Do you know what your painting will look like before you start painting it?