Interdisciplinary studies: What Visual Artists Can Learn from the Literary Community
For me, writing (and reading) have been the glue that give art broader meaning
Please, consider supporting a few of the following causes lead by the literary community below, or find other ways to take action with Jewish Voice for Peace and at ceasefiretoday.com.
I have been told that I’m a writer and have even had someone go as far as to try and call me a poet. Although I like to read a lot of non-fiction articles and some books, fiction and poetry, on the other hand are not really my thing. (Especially poetry.)
Truth be told, I have always been a very slow reader and maybe get through four or five books a year. Even though I was in honors classes as a teenager and had a great reading voice, I shamefully could never quite finish a lot of the books that we were required to read as much as I wanted to.
Reading and re-reading, I always had a hard time understanding and connecting the intertwined layers and layers of underlying meaning. For me, fiction and poetry have always meant long, drawn out spans of time spent reading and re-reading and reading and re-reading… Trudging in the snow through layers and layers of meaning, just trying to get to the other side.
In a similar way to art, fiction and poetry are about developing layers and layers of meaning through words. Writers and poets are masters of metaphor on top of metaphor, and depth on top of depth (who knew such a thing could exist!).
But in times of hardship and turmoil, literary artists show us that words reach people and that context is important, too. It’s not just about feeling and perceived beauty. Writers show us that sometimes there is beauty in truth, in imperfection, in the collective sharing of a wound.
As visual artists we tend to place a lot of focus on what things look like (perceived depth). We can place less importance on actually being able to explain and understand the larger narrative of our work and how it connects to what’s going on in the world. We can shy away from sadness and pain although not always by any fault of our own—we can’t be good at everything and words are our weakness. Beauty is what we know.
In these times of anguish and distress in Gaza, I have been especially touched to see writers, poets, booksellers and publishers leading the way in solidarity. When the layers start to pile on and the masses start to get tired of fumbling through the snow, somewhere a dedicated group of literary artists, authors, linguists, translators and historians get together in the dead of winter because they are tired, sad and restless, too; and so they fumble and they write.
Meaningful causes to support:
Edward Said Libraries book drive (ended)
Publishers for Palestine (Read Palestine Week)
So Many Hearts postcard project (Update added Feb. 6th, 2024)
"Trudging in the snow through layers and layers of meaning, just trying to get to the other side." Couldn't have been said better! Sometimes, the translation of poetry itself needs a translator. It takes a lot to understand poetry, but this depth is what adds to its meaning, and in times of despair, to its message. Thank you for this great perspective :)