Revealing Our Inner-Worlds: Internal Experiences of Art Expressed Through Poetry
- Mauve Hellebore
- Apr 28
- 3 min read
Nothing grips humans quite like a compelling painting. They're just stagnant colors, shapes, forms, and textures made from aggregate materials, but when an artist weaves all of these together they can move us toward the stars. Paintings take us to lost memories or reveal new ideas our own minds hide from us. Artists, through their art, add and nourish that infinite inner-world of imagination, creativity, and emotional intelligence within us all.
Yet even as I write this, prose fails to provide an adequate description of this inner-world. This natural reaction that explodes with impossibly large feelings when one connects with a painting is equally impossible to describe with common speech. Even experts in the art world often fumble over their words as they try to precicely describe eveything going on in a painting, especially when they describe their personal reaction to a work.
I'm not talking about a formal analysis, or critiquing color choice or composition, but about that feeling. We all know the one I'm talking about. That feeling of sublime awe which absolutely enraptures us with 10,000 emotions and thoughts and understandings and gods and monsters and histories and love and hate and...our humanity.
One such painting that grips me, personally, in this way is Reyes Padilla's "Synful Norteño." There's something about the elegantly minimalistic composition and the downward motion that reminds me of the feeling I get when I'm camping. When it's just me and the night, me and the distant mountains, and a billion stars in the sky that seem to shower down on the earth like rain. When it's just me communicating with the cosmos.
But even this description falls flat. It's not exactly what I feel everytime I see this painting. I need another tool of explanation. I need something like another form of art to actually explain, well, art itself.
Perhaps poetry can help? Poetry is all about revealing what's going on in one's inner world. Maybe it's the key to unlocking the secret of art?
So I gave it a try! I sat with the painting for many days, fully embracing it and every emotion or idea that came to my mind. As I was meditating on the work I realized there is also an upward motion to the piece, contrasting with the initial downward motion I felt in the painting. Instantly the phrase, "As above, so below," popped in my head and a poem was born.
I'm not sure if I fully succeeded in describing my inner world when I experience "Synful Norteño," but I believe it's a step in the right direction. I hope you enjoy the poem below and that it adds, dear reader, to the experience of the artwork, too. And I encourage you to experience art through making your own art as well. Come to Lapis Room, get inspired, and get back out there! Share your experiences! It's really the only way we'll truly know what's going on in someone's head. Maybe, even, the only way we can ever truly express our inner-worlds?
"As Above, So Below"
A Poem by Mauve Hellebore. Inspired by Reyes Padilla's "Synful Norteño."
...
The heavens pulse with micaceous glow
and in the earth stars beg form.
I never really understood "as above, so below"
until I saw a mountain storm.
And there we were in the dark,
the moon made silver waves of grass,
listening to the hornéd larks
call out like a band of brass.
Without hesitation you gave me a kiss
then heathen gods to me said,
"This, most, you will miss."
Another on my lips, my heart bled.
Compasses are oriented north,
perhaps that way we avoid sin,
but what is all that effort worth
when in storms it all will end?
As above, so below
Good and evil give equal woe.
Wanna write your own poem about art? Join Lapis Room's upcoming event "How to write a poem session"
In this session, learn tips-and-tricks about the basics of poetry from Mauve Hellebore. Then, using those tools, write your own poem about your favorite work of art in Lapis Room. After the poem is written, share your poem with fellow participants! All while enjoying light refreshments provided by the gallery.
The event is free for Boon Boon Art Club members.
(Redeem on our website with promo code "MAUVE" or click the button below the image)
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