April's Musings

August 06, 2006
"Links"

I have said for a long time that art is the servant of nature, that nature is the teacher, the poet and the well from which art draws its life.

When I look at the stem of a leaf, when I see the central vein of the leaf and the small veins branching out I feel the center of my own spine and I feel my arms reaching out as the veins of the leaf reach out to the sides of itself—I feel its center and I feel its life—when I look at nature I am always responding to its pulse of life. Recently I was reading the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and more than anything else in the book the quotes of different artists called out to me—ringing like Sunday church bells—clear and calling across centuries.

One of my favorites was of Auguste Rodin, the French sculptor. As a young girl of fourteen I developed a passion for the work of Auguste Rodin. After reading his biography, I spent a summer sculpting clay figures on our back porch. I had pig tails and bare feet, but I felt seriously artistic and inspired by his life.

I collected clay from a field behind our home and I worked my hands through it and wished there was someone to teach me the confidence of Rodin. I felt his passion—his relationship with earth—his urge to copy the human body in The Thinker, The Lovers, and in many other of his profound works.

Reading his quoted words in Drawing on the Right Side of Brain made me see how closely our thoughts coincided. And surprised me too, at the conversation that Rodin had with nature, much the same as mine! He wrote-

"The Artist is the confidant of nature. Flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.”

I was amazed when I read his words, I felt I could have spoken them or written them myself.

I like the linking of thoughts over generations, through centuries, one artist calling to another—this time calling the recognition of nature as the essence of art.