I, an Artist
“I, an Artist” is a found poem created from quotes about art, many of which are by famous artists.
The role of the artist is to ask questions,
not answer them.
Art is not what you see,
but what you make others see.
Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art.
If only we could pull out our brains and use only our eyes.
There is no abstract art.
You must always start with something.
Afterwards, you can remove all traces of reality.
Without art, the crudeness of reality
would make the world unbearable.
Living is an artistic activity,
there is an art to getting through the day.
Art is a selective recreation of reality,
according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments.
Without magic, there is no art.
Without art, there is no idealism.
Without idealism, there is no integrity.
Without integrity there is nothing but production.
The object isn’t to make art,
it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.
Art enables me to find myself,
and lose myself at the same time.
I want to move certain parts of the interior of myself
into the exterior world,
to see if they can be embraced.
These figures are not projections of my muse,
but projections of myself.
My art is not a reflection,
but a carbon copy of the artist I call “me”.
Art is the only serious thing in the world,
and the artist is the only person who is never serious.
All forms of madness, bizarre habits,
awkwardness in society, general clumsiness,
are justified in the person that creates good art.
It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.
Life beats down and crushes the soul,
and art reminds me that I have one.
If we can’t, as artists, improve on real life,
we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality,
and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams.
The dream of my life is to make beautiful art.
I dream painting and I paint my dream.
We all know art is not truth.
Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.
It is what you can get away with.
Art is the reason I get up in the morning,
but the definition ends there.
It doesn’t seem fair that I’m living for something I can’t even define.
If you ask me what I came to do in this world,
I, an artist, am here to live out loud.
*Quotes by: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Edgar Degas, Susan Sontag, Pablo Picasso, George Bernard Shaw, Viggo Mortensen, Ayn Rand, Raymond Chandler, Robert Henri, Thomas Merton, Jonathan Lethem, Oscar Wilde, Roman Rayne, John Irving, Stella Adler, Barbara Kingsolver, Miguel Ruiz, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Ani DiFranco, Émile Zola
Great poem! I like how you mention life shouldn’t be taken so seriously, and that getting through a full day is an art in itself… I’m sure most students and teachers will also agree. One line that I found powerful is when you state, “The object isn’t to make art,
it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” I can feel your passion for art especially in that line. Very nicely said 🙂
Thanks Laura! Though, I can’t take credit for these lines. “I, an Artist” is a found poem I did a couple of month ago. A found poem is the literary equivalent of a collage. I took a selection of quotes about art by famous artists and writers, and rearranged them to make a poem. The image I posted is my process of creating the text collage.
Christina,
I’m trying to understand this method because it seems so difficult but your poem came out so well. Do you just come across sentences you like and write them down while you are reading for other purposes? Or do you skim through all kinds of writing to find sentences that suit the theme of your poem? Also, I must say that I usually don’t like poetry and I actually have never heard about found poetry, but I read this poem willingly until the end.
Yahav,
This is a great technique for people who tend to not like writing poetry or feel intimidated by poems.
I had the intention of creating a found poem about art so I searched for quotes online and printed out over a hundred lines of text. Then, I cut out the sentences and highlighted key words. Using the key words as guides, I rearranged the cut outs to form a poem. It’s almost like solving a jigsaw puzzle. You search for lines that fit with each other, and piece together the poem.
I really enjoyed making this poem and encourage you to try it! (We will be doing this in English class by the way!)