Starry Sky

(Leaf 137) – Art Inspired

 

Vincent Van Gogh - Starry Night (1889) Museum of Modern Art, New York

Temporarily rounding off the “art inspired” theme explored over the course of the last three leaves (Leaf 134; Leaf 135; Leaf 136), this poem isn’t so much about one particularly well-known painting – but more about that white cube in which we now expect to see paintings and artworks. Both physical and conceptual, four white walls, a wooden floor, and an unconscious skylight receding somewhere overhead. To me, such ubiquitous art gallery spaces always seem to echo in my mind with an image of the cerebral interior of the human skull.

 

 

A starry sky

staring back

– a stark white wall.

 

 

 

Sunflowers

(Leaf 136) – Art Inspired

 

Vincent Van Gogh - Sunflowers (1888) National Gallery London

Following on from my last two poems, this one continues the “art inspired” theme, something which I often cycle back to when I attempt to write short poems. This one reflects upon the relationships between artists, art, and creativity. These relationships can be complex – psychologically and socially – and often seem to result in skewed perspectives. I think one of the most difficult things in both life and art is not so much the ability to see clearly, but perhaps more the ability to see eye-to-eye.

 

 

Heads so bright, but heavy –

painting sunflowers

for Paul Gauguin.

 

 

 

Linear Mandala

(Leaf 135) – Art Inspired

 

This poem is another attempt to synthesise my fascination for the paintings of Jackson Pollock (see Leaf 134). There has been a lot of speculation about what first sparked Pollock’s creative “breakthrough” and his subsequent pursuit of his famous drip paintings – was it simply accidental, staring down at his paint spattered studio floor, or a more carefully considered painterly synthesis of Navajo artistic designs and Buddhist sand mandala techniques, or something else entirely? 

 

Jackson Pollock - Summertime: Number 9A (1948) Tate Modern

 

Brush tipped,

a linear mandala

falls.