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ARTIST AS WITNESS

ByLee Ann

A key role of any artist is as a witness to life. Artists do more than live life. They observe life. They reflect about what they observe and they transform those observations and reflections into art. Think about it: a poem, a song, a dance, a painting – any form of art can be triggered because an artist first witnessed life.

Lucky us! Art in any of its manifestations can provide us with a thoughtful, clear depiction of what life was like in a place and time far different than our own.

I’ve been thinking about this lately because a book of my poetry and photography has been accepted into the Ottawa Archives COVID collection. This collection – of photos, correspondence, artwork and other records – has been created to show future generations what it was really like to live in Ottawa through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course I am delighted to think about people 50 or 100 years from now looking through my Poetry Art! (Sample here.) More than that, I find myself grateful for artists. By their very nature, in their role as witness, they create all types of evocative work. We all then benefit from their observations, their reflections and of course, their ability to transform these into art.

Here are two of my favourite examples of artists in their key role as a witness to life:

  • John McRae. In his famous poem, “In Flanders Fields,” he gives us his observations of the battlefield and then transcends this into a rallying cry from the dead.
  • Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Their musical, “Come From Away” depicts Gander, Newfoundland taking in 6700 people diverted by 9/11. The actual hardships are transformed into words, music and dance.

What about you? What artist-as-witness piece(s) of art impress you?

Lee Ann

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ART FROM REAL LIFE

ByLee Ann
Homework: spinach. Artistic inspiration?

I’ve been thinking lately that I have nothing to write about. This winter I’ve been sick. I injured my back from coughing so hard when I was sick. I’ve been taking a horticulture course at U Guelph, and I’ve been writing for other people. In other words, no artistic inspiration in my real life!

Luckily a friend alerted me to an online poetry course given by Governor General Award-winning poet Lorna Crozier (thanks, M2!) And the very first lesson in that course reminded me that real life – in all its pain and all its glory – inspires any artist who takes the time to observe.

Observing is a skill, and it’s a critical part of the creative process. Turns out, I did not have to look beyond what has been happening in my real life to be inspired. We received two prompts in this lesson. One was to write from a line in a poem called “Peaches” by Peter Davison:

a mouthful of language to swallow

What a great line, I wish I had written it! But I did write from it, which is just as great. The second prompt was to write what’s called an “apostrophe” poem. That’s a poem addressed to an animal, an inanimate object, an idea, or a person who is absent. I did not have to look far to find what I wanted to address.

So there you have it. Often real life does provide the source for inspiration. It’s right there if only we look closely.

Winter beauty: a gift of the season! And may be artistic inspiration as well.

Why not try it yourself? Observing, I mean. What do you see/hear/feel when you take the time to observe what is happening in your own real life? You may not arrive at a new poem, but I’m betting you will benefit. May you gain some insight, recognize the gifts of this current life phase, or at the very least, enjoy immersing yourself in the beauty that is unique to the winter season.

Meanwhile, please enjoy the two poems I created directly from my real life. “A Mouthful of Language to Swallow” and “To the Muscles Surrounding my L2 to L5 Vertebrae.”

Lee Ann

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WHEN “I” DOESN’T MEAN “ME”: Lesson #1 From My Latest Poem

ByLee Ann

It’s easy to assume that when a writer uses the first person in a poem or story, the “I” she’s referring to is herself. Not so! Well, sometimes it’s so, but more often than not the writer has made a creative choice, and there are many different reasons to decide to write something in the first person. This decision is a big part of the creative process.

Here’s an example: a poem I recently wrote with a first-person narrator. Click here to read it; I’ll wait while you do that.

waiting patiently while you read

What’s Real and What’s Not

OK, welcome back! Now, a number of people have told me how interested they were to read about my grandmother and the experience I described from childhood. The thing is, I had no such grandmother and no such experience. In fact, the entire back yard scene was conjured up by my imagination during a “free write” session in a poetry workshop. I saw the scene clearly in my mind and wrote it down, up to the point where the young girl is trailing after the tall, muttering old woman. Certain elements – the rooftops, the clothesline – matched my actual grandmother’s back yard. Beyond that, the key elements – the sniffing, the predictions, even the wicker basket – all made up.

My Mimi’s clothesline did not look like this

I actually decided to make this a first-person narrator because first-person is the best way to give readers direct, unfiltered access to what’s going on inside a character’s head. The character herself is telling the story, not a separate narrator once removed. It’s more immediate than if I’d written “she set out to practice”, or “she learned”. Try replacing “I” with “she” when re-reading the poem, and see if you agree.

Time to Marinate

When I wrote the scene, I knew I wanted to expand it into something, but I didn’t know exactly what. So I filed the scene away and didn’t look at it again for over six months. The creative process involves a lot of marinating. I’ve written about this already in this series: draft versions take time to develop into a finished product. They benefit from being set aside for a while. In this case, when I read the scene again with the fresh eyes that six months’ distance gave me, I immediately started to wonder about how this young girl character might respond to her grandmother and this power. Which led me to the second half of the poem, and the decision to use a first-person narrator.

“Rain’s coming,” she’d say.

In the next installment of this series, I’ll write some more about the second half of the poem, as I continue to “unmask” the creative process for you. Meanwhile, remember: beware the temptation to assume that the use of “I” in a story or poem means the writer is writing about herself! It’s a choice she makes as part of the creative process.

Lee Ann

FASCINATING WOMEN YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF

ByLee Ann

More and more historians have started probing history to uncover fascinating women and their contributions over millennia. Historical novelists, too, are telling the stories of women, either known historical people or characters based on what we know women experienced and accomplished in the past.

In my role as a features writer for the Historical Novel Society, I get to read new releases of historical novels. I interview authors to discover the people and events that have inspired them to write their books.

Several authors I’ve interviewed recently have told the stories of women I’m betting you’ve never heard of. So as summer softens into cooler days and earlier darkness, why not explore history through the lives and contributions of some fascinating women?

Below are links to my author interviews. You can find the books at your favourite independent bookseller, or your local library. Happy reading!

Lee Ann

The Stolen Lady, by Laura Morelli. OK, you probably have heard of the enigmatic Lisa Gherardini… or as she’s more often called, Mona Lisa. But did you know that the staff of The Louvre spirited most of the museum’s collection (including Lisa’s portrait) out of Paris just before the Nazis arrived to plunder the treasures? Women drove the escape vehicles!


A Most Clever Girl, by Stephanie Marie Thornton. Who was the person who ran the largest Soviet spy ring in the United States during the Cold War? A woman by the name of Elizabeth Bentley. Her confession to the FBI not only identified 41 Soviet sources operating throughout the U.S., it essentially took down the golden age of Soviet espionage, which had been ongoing for over 20 years.

Mrs. Lincoln’s Sisters, by Jennifer Chiaverini. You likely know at least a little bit about Abraham Lincoln’s wife. What about her sisters? Mary Todd Lincoln’s relationships with them were some of the most important in her life. Elizabeth Todd Edwards and Emilie Todd Helm both lived extraordinary lives in their own right, and were present during a particularly transformative time in America’s history.


Dark Earth, by Rebecca Stott. Did you know: under the remains of medieval London lies buried the once great Roman city of Londinium. It was abandoned around 420AD for reasons unknown. So much remains unknown about this period of history that it’s known as the Dark Ages. Author Stott delves into the lives of women during this time through two female characters who flee to the haunted city. Isla is a master sword maker, a skill forbidden to women. Her sister Blue is a master of myth and magic.

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PERSPECTIVE

ByLee Ann

The creative process has a lot to do with perspective. I was reminded of this a couple of years ago when I went to a painting party. Over a few hours, an artist showed a group of us how to create a simple painting of a sailboat at night. No two pieces of art, even though they represented the same subject, were the same. Each nascent artist brought a specific perspective when creating their painting.

Of course, an artist’s skill level also plays a role in the resulting piece. Do you know the most important skill any artist needs to hone? Observation.

Keen observation: the building block of artistic perspective!

Think about it. Even in the context of the painting party, each person’s ability to observe – the interrelation of the boat’s parts, how parallel lines converging give the illusion of depth and distance – in large part determined the success of the final product.

Observation + Perspective = Art

Poet and author Molly Peacock goes so far as to say that a poet’s skills are “noticing and comparing one thing to another.” She says a poet must become “an expert in observing.” I think this goes for all artists, whether their medium is poetry or dance, painting or song.

What an artist notices and what they think about that is the heart of any piece of artwork. If an artist is very skilled at observing and then expressing from their observations – well, they’ll have endless creative output! Plus, a skilled artist often brings to us new insight via their work.

If you want to read a delightful example of observation and perspective, look for American poet Alicia Suskin Ostriker’s book, The Old Woman, the Tulip and the Dog (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). It’s a collection of over 30 different poems, each written from three perspectives: that of an old woman, a tulip, and a dog.

Meanwhile, why not try practicing keen observation of what is in your world? Notice what you notice! Then express it somehow, even in a post-it note that you stick on your monitor. You just might begin to awaken your inner artist!

Until next time, here is my tribute to Ostriker: “Aging from Three Perspectives”.

Lee Ann

TAKING A SHOT

ByLee Ann

I don’t often use sports metaphors. I’m more of a face-in-a-book, dreamy, poem-writing type. But recently, I was sorting through a number of poems I’ve been working on and I decided I wanted to “do something” with a few of them. They didn’t suit being turned into Poetry Art – they were either too long, or didn’t have a suitable photo – so I decided to enter a poetry contest.

The Canadian Authors Association National Capital Region runs a contest every year; I’ve entered before, but not for quite a while. When I noticed this year’s judge was a poet I admire – Governor General Award winner Lorna Crozier – I started picking and polishing what I thought were my three best.

And I took a shot.

And here’s where the sports metaphor comes in.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Canadian hockey great Wayne Gretzky

What is not often quoted is what he said right after this:

… even though there is only a one to five percent possibility of scoring.

Here’s the thing. I felt a bloom of pride when I did the work, decided the work was worthy of a shot, and made the effort to submit. Even though this is a contest open to poets across the country, which made the possibility of my poems “scoring” one of the top three prizes about the same as Gretzky’s chance of scoring a goal.

But that’s OK. I picked and polished and submitted anyway. And I tell you: that bloom of pride is something to aspire to, something very worthwhile.

As it turned out, Canadian Authors notified me that one of my poems was shortlisted: one of six poems selected by Crozier as finalists. It went on to win second place in the contest.

This, of course, is a very big deal for me as a writer! I wanted to share my delight with you, yes. But more than that, I wanted to describe to you that blooming sense of pride that comes from doing the work – whatever that means to you – believing in the work, and taking one step towards making whatever you’ve worked on even bigger than it already is. I wanted to remind you to take the shot.

Do it!

Lee Ann

P.S. Thank you for your patience as we sorted out the lost subscriber list! If you are reading this, you don’t need to do anything to “re-subscribe,” you’re in!

If you had unsubscribed from my site in the past and suddenly got notification of this new post, my apologies; we had to cobble together a new list from past ones, so you inadvertently got re-subscribed. Of course, I’d love it if you stayed with me, but if you prefer, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking at the bottom of the email notice you received about this post. I’m truly sorry to see you go.