Abstract reflections on the ACW Autum gathering

 

I must admit I was a bit reluctant to go. I was exhausted and had many shelved tasks at home that I’ve been putting off for far too long. Maybe I felt like a child expected to turn up at a family event where I didn’t fit in. Yet I shouldn’t have been surprised to have been blessed by attending the ACW Autumn Gathering in Egham last Saturday.  It was lovely to meet people whose comments I read on Facebook or LinkedIn posts. I also came away with a fresh impetus to get back to my writing. Although it was not one of the many interesting insights that were shared that stuck with me most, but an almost throw-away comment by the ACW chair, Jane Walters.

Jane shared how she had returned to drawing and painting but acknowledged that the output was not well formed, as if a child produced it. Her comment inferred that we can gradually improve a skill we enjoy. For me, I was drawn to recall the Bible verses (Mark 10:13-16) where Jesus welcomes and blesses children. He commends those around him to consider how children are unhindered by expectation and accept the blessings of heaven easily. I wondered how much, as writers, we can get too focused to shape our creative output (writing or art) to be accepted by others and lose some of our individuality.

I fully accept there is much to learn about any art form, but I love abstract art. I am drawn to the works of those, like Salvador Dali, Tracy Emin and Damien Hurst, who’s works embody the freedom to push back on traditional thinking. Though I’m still questioning art that people present as drawn by an elephant or pig.

Much is made of the statement that you have to know the rules to break the rules is true, but who gets to decide the rules? When does following those rules stifle the creativity or subdue the inner child? Unpacking my recently discovered neurodiversity has shown how much I have masked my true self to fit in. I regularly boxed away my emotions and desires to become as small and insignificant as possible. Even before my suspicions around this aspect of my life, I was aware of inhibiting myself not to stand out. I began to challenge myself to creatively ‘work on a bigger canvas with more colour’, but this proved harder than I hoped.

In a recent TV programme, I was intrigued to hear that the great Impressionists, such as Monet and Renoir, were considered breakers of the rules. The respected Paris Art Academy considered them too radical in the ways they used colour and sweeping brushstrokes to quickly capture a scene. At that time art was expected to record important portraitures or significant landscapes. Oddly, later the Impressionists themselves disregarded Seurat’s scientific use of dots to create stunning records of ordinary urban Parisian life as not spontaneous enough.

In one of the group sessions in the afternoon of the ACW Gathering, someone recommended some poetry courses to me. I was grateful as I recognise there is benefit in exploring different poetic forms and I’m keen to build on my use of sound, rhythm and form in poetry. However, I find free verse liberating and enjoy working with concrete poems. I want to discuss whether I produce humorous ditties, spoken-word verses expressing direct emotionally charged topics or conceal the key subject under the cloak of a parallel perspective. I find Brian Bilston’s approach to poetry fascinating and inspirational. So, I’m eager to develop my own personal expression and perspective, so I can approach well-trod topics in fresh ways.   

I had planned to write about a generic writing skill, but I was prompted to promote poetry this time. It can feel like authors of adult fiction are the embodiment of the institutional expectation of ‘a writer’. Those writing books covering difficult topics for children and young adults, writing short fiction or bringing fresh insights of God to others through devotionals can feel second best. Sometimes poetry feels like the childish or abstract art of writing. So maybe by being a poet I am kicking off expectations of the rule makers and seeking to bring more colour on a bigger canvas.  

I pray that we all release our inner child. The one that seeks God wholeheartedly but also finds joy for ourselves and creative ways to share that joy with others.

 

Elaine Langford is a writer that is feeling quite adult about exploring childlike approaches to discovering her voice in poetry.

If you want to check out some of her poems, pop over to her Poetry Puddles blog. [https://poetrypuddles.wordpress.com] Look out for a ‘concrete’ poem combined with a physical art project she took part in. 

Elaine has also started reworking a poem about frustration over who decides what is art or not, titled "Deep Art". Pop back in a couple of days as she may have got round to posting it there by then.