Poetry & Art Practice
poiesis [noun] /pəʊˈiːsɪs/
1. that which produces or leads a thing into being, that did not exist before.
I have begun to feel that surreal poetry and abstract art are produced in the same part of my mind, in the same attitude — though one art is wordless and the other, only words. They can be read in similar ways, alert to juxtapositions, interrelationships, non-narrative meaning.
Both draw from the same sources — mundane life, overheard conversation, accident; extraordinary light, wakeful dream, absurd reality; engagement with other artists and their work.
A moving cascade of impressions becomes thought becomes marks on a surface. Curate, manipulate, cut and move, bury and reveal. Study closely, interrogate; allow time and distance to change perceptions.
Always the questions: What vital essence can be caught? What new thing comes to life which did not exist before?
I paint from remembered landscapes that I carry with me—and remembered feelings of them, which of course become transformed. I could certainly never mirror nature. I would like more to paint what it leaves me with.
— Joan Mitchell, quoted in a 1958 interview.
The World of Books, watercolour on paper, by Rami Schandall © 2020.
