Celebrating the art of matching words to images with a Montreal Rose

  by Nancy Snipper

Beyond the Dream: epic solitude – Nancy’s collection of poetry and short stories. 

Sometimes, it takes only a second for Lady Luck to slip into your life. No matter how much an artist of any kind tries to prepare, plan and push – even seek recognition, all too often, events and the stars seem to conspire against them.

My lucky day happened at the Montreal Arts Centre where many visual artists rent space for their own studio. On one floor you can find up to ten artists working, including several from Montreal. One of my friends, the great painter and craft genius, Roxanna Kibsey has her studio there. The day I arrived  at the gallery, Roxanna was taking care of things at the front desk. I had arranged to visit her and see what new wonderful work she was doing - the tiny doll houses she was decorating and the class she was preparing to give. While sitting with her, in walked a lady who said just a few words to Roxanna, and then she instantly left. I managed to find out she was a painter who lives in Montreal and got her phone number. I asked Rose to come over. I wanted to see her paintings and perhaps interview her at a later time. She came over a few days later to show me some of her artwork. What I saw left me dumbstruck. Here was an artist who seemed to speak my soul. As a writer, I use words to paint pictures – to create characters and reveal scenes that hopefully resonate with the reader. Rose’s paintings seemed to speak my inner soul. I was able to match over 85% of my poems with her images after examining all her work on the Internet. This perfect pairing of poem per painting was uncanny.  I had wanted for a long time to put my poems in a collection, but now a more elaborate vision entered my imagination. Why not create a book of poetry and art? I asked Rose if she would like to have her art alongside some of my poems. I quickly sent her some of my work to read, and she was eager to do it. She said that my poetry was the missing puzzle to her paintings. On the spot, I decided to put out a book that featured the union of my poems with her images.  Our collaboration was fun, and utterly satisfying. We seemed to think alike, but it was the love of the land, mutual respect along with luck mixed with out own creative drive that made this no-rules journey a rich and happy one. Our commonalities were uncanny.

Rose and I soon discovered that we both were nuts about nature; we grew up in it (I, on a lake in the Gatineau Hills, and she in a remote countryside area in New Brunswick). Both of us had the same sense of humour, were sports-loving and gentle rebels who never bought into society’s competitive edge, plus we both taught. Eight months after our initial meeting, “Beyond the Dream: epic solitude was born. Thanks to the superb talents of book designer, Catherine Charbonneau, this collection of my poems and short stories results in a remarkable marriage of Rose's art with my writing. This book is a quintessential creative collaboration.

To view beautiful excerpts from the book and/or order your copy of Beyond the Dream: epic solitude, contact: nansnipper@gmail.com

The book can also be purchased at: Paragraphe Bookstore (2200 McGill Ave., Montreal).

The Agony of the Artistic Temperament

                                                    by Nancy Snipper

Have you ever been told you have an artistic temperament?

                              Vincent Van Gogh, Schumann, Beethoven and poet, Sylvia Plath (top to bottom).

 

Is this a compliment or a softly delivered insult? I can remember being told by my mother that I was different, that I didn’t see the world as others did, that writing poetry at the age of nine was not an activity most pursued with élan, even if it would earn you a gold star from your teacher.
The fact is, I was kind of a word nerd, a dreamy escapist who felt my way as the only way, and the condition worsened when I discovered Herman and the Hermits. Great! Now I could travel across the Mercy, get inspired write poetry and then put the words to music. I could become a lyric goddess, inspired by the water under the ferry I was riding!
My imagination seemed to control most of my life. Even when I had my tonsils out, I woke up and began writing a poem about darkness. Heavens to Betsy, what was happening to me?
One day when my turtle died and I cried for a week, my mother sat down to explain that I had an artistic temperament. I felt rather happy to hear this, because I didn’t understand what this meant, but I found the phrase to be poetically pleasing to the ear. I immediately began writing little verses whose words rhymed with ‘ment’ – ‘bent’, ‘lent’ and ‘sent ‘could fit nicely into a 4-line verse. Then I became really excited with the word ’resent’. It was secretly aimed at people in my teens who did not accept my ‘artistic temperament’.
Later on in life, I began to see that I was overly sensitive to people’s joking about me. In fact, I was an emotional dragon, spewing out invectives against the world in my poetry and songs.at the world.not even a diva. I had achieved nothing, so there was no justification for that title. I just had a lot of ideas that wanted to be expressed in poetry and music.
Now decades later, I am proud to say I no longer have that artistic temperament, where the universe where my feelings and thoughts were all that mattered.
Working with other artists as an interviewer and collaborator on projects I began to see that some artists lack a connection to the real humdrum very necessary aspects to daily living. Many of the people I interviewed seemed to live in an altered state and in a different reality from the one I and most other face every day. Getting up, feeling aches and pains, going to work, struggling with traffic, getting annoyed by a co-worker who did not want to do his fair share of a teaching project, even feeling bored and turning on the sleep tube (TV).
So what was it that changed me?
Maturity I hope, and the fascination I have with others rather than myself as a writer, observation is tantamount to the craft. Meeting a new person or catching up with a friend you haven’t seen for a while is like unwrapping a new gift - surprises galore. Everyone is an exclusive package, and even if they have that artistic temperament which to me translates as picky-picky, inability to laugh at one’s weakness, sensitive to every comment made or dodgy in responsibility (this may not be your take on the term), I find this über fascinating.
Take the composer Mahler: he totally disallowed his wife to pursue her musical career as a composer. He insisted that she must remain subservient to him and that, as his muse, her role was to be present and supportive of his moods. He guarded his artistic temperament, putting his creativity above his marriage.
Plato said that artistic temperament is divine madness. Freud called it a dark angel of destruction. Psychiatrists have noted that many great artists suffer from a deep neurosis that can result in self destructive behavior: Vincent Van Gogh, Schumann, Beethoven and poet, Sylvia Plath.

                                                                     Sigmund Freud

An artistic temperament can work for you though. It is the driving force behind all those obsessive creative ideas that won’t leave you alone until you make them real. So next time someone tells you that you have an AT, say thank you and get on with that new thing you want to bring to life.

 Also posted on / Aussi attesté sur: Matters of Personal Interest