4.19.2007

a poet's hunger

I admire poets. Poets are artists, musicians, writers, and, well, poets. My engineer's brain rarely lets me be expressive. Things need to fit, they need to balance. Poetry isn't usually like that, though, right?

I can't draw something for the sake of drawing. I can't write for the sake of expression. I can only barely get myself to just take pictures for the fun of it. When I draw, I usually draw cubes or other polyhedrons instead of drawing how I feel. When I write, I want everything to flow properly and make logical sense rather than channel feelings. When I do photography, I usually spend more time trying to center the image and make sure settings are right rather than capture an object's essence.

I don't know. I'm not trying to say writers don't write correctly, or that artists don't ever draw geometric shapes, or that photographers aren't concerned with the settings of their cameras. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I haven't been able to create art for me. Aren't the best artists just doing what they love? Everything I've done I've always compared with what should have been done. Can I verify correctness? Is the math right? Is everything square?

Art isn't like this. I wish I were more of an artist. I have the hunger of a poet, but not the soul. That's ok, though, because I like being an engineer.

3 comments:

Kermit~the~Frog said...

It's not that you are not enough of an artist; it's that you forgot your medium, which requires as much, if not more, patience as the mainstream expressions of art. Two words: reef tank. Two more: living art. And again: pretty cool.

sixline said...

Never thought that the reef would be considered art. At least not art my hands created. (Unless you're talking about that stand I repainted to look nothing less than dazzling.)

Anonymous said...

Your reef tank (though I've never seen it) would definitely count as art. :) And while I agree that the left-sided brain might make art more difficult, I'm almost positive that you can break through that barrier and become expressive. It'll probably take a lot of work, granted, but it's completely within the realm of the possible. Baby steps. :)