"What I want is that my picture should evoke nothing but emotion."
Spanish Artist
1881 - 1973
Commentary
Does your creative work evoke the emotions of your audience? Does the work touch people's hearts? Or is it an exercise in intellectual games? The best creative work, the work that will last, touches people deeply and evokes emotions. Think of the music the you like or the paintings that you enjoy. They touch some part of you very deeply.
Are you in touch with your emotions? Or do you hide your emotions from yourself and others? When was the last time you had a deep emotional cry? Do you believe that it is okay to cry? Movies, more than novels or poetry, tend to touch me very deeply and often make me cry. I have recently been watching the first season of the TV show, Touch, starring Kiefer Sutherland. Every episode has filled my eyes with tears. I have been emotionally touched.
What creative works have touched you deeply? Have made you cry? Or laugh? Or scream? Or frightened you? Think of those thriller movies that some people love to watch. Years ago when I attempted to read Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, it made me sick to my stomach and I could not finish it.
Creative Practice
This week ask yourself if your creative work touches the hearts of other people. Does your creative work evoke the emotions of others? Then create a new work from the heart. Create something that evokes the emotions others.
Poems That Touched Me
This past week I identified ten poems that have touched my heart over the years. If all my books were taken away and I only could keep ten poems, these would be the ten that I would keep. All ten poems can be found on the web. I have linked the titles to copies of the poems. If you have not read them, you should.
1. The Waking by Theodore Roethke
2. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
3. Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
4. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Elliot
5. anyone lived in a pretty how town by e.e. cummings
6. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
7. Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
8. Underwear by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
9. What I Learned From My Mother by Julia Kasdorf
10. Watering the Horse by Robert Bly
What poems have touched your heart? What paintings have evoked emotions in you? What novels have left you sad? Glad? Or mad?
Artist Background
One of the greatest artist of any century, Pablo Picasso was born in Spain but lived most of his life in France. As an artist, he was constantly reinventing himself. Known for founding the Cubist movement, he was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer.
Video
Here is one person's listing of the top twenty paintings by Picasso. Not all would make my list, but the top 2 would.
