I began this morning with a little poetry.

There’s a ritual involved. A cup of coffee. (Of course.) A comfy place on the couch. Feet up on the footstool. A little blanket over my feet. A pen to mark the words and phrases I especially like.

A poem about snipping yellow flowers caused me to pause. Put my book down. Close my eyes for a few moments. Savor and think.

It wasn’t just flowers. It was very specific flowers: yellow irises. And not just scissors. Specific scissors. Some five-and-ten-cent store scissors from the junk drawer, inherited from the previous resident of her place.

And the flowers went in a simple carafe on a white tabletop in the sun.

I could see it. And I could feel and relate to the emotions and ideas the poet related from the forbidden cutting. (The irises were in an abandoned garden not actually the property of the poet to cut. That was part of the story.)

So much in a short less-than-a-page group of words. They captured a moment.

Capturing a moment.

Then preserving or redefining it, presenting it to the reader. I will have my impressions of those flowers in my head most of the day.

It seems a good test to apply to visual artmaking.

Have I created something that captures or expresses a single thought?

Have I eliminated everything that would distract from that thought?

Will the viewer have something to take away and savor?

Could the viewer return to my work again and rediscover the initial feeling, or see something new? (I know I have marked this iris poem as one to visit again.)

I have a head full of artmaking ideas I want to address this week and several projects in the works.

I’m productive in my studio.

But. This simple experience of poetry is important. I want it to be a part of what I am working one. A way to look meaningfully at what I create.

Is it about something?

Am I using my art tools and practices to convey that?

Will it show up in the work?

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi

bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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