Advice to Artists (new Poem by Polly Castor)

Advice to Artists (new Poem by Polly Castor)

Advice to Artists poem by Polly Castor

Advice to Artists

Spawn art
like birthing rabbits;
focus on quantity first;
proliferate work by
enthusiastic production.
Try things without judgement.
Express unstoppable joy
in what interests you.
Paint lots, hundreds,
approaching it as
an ardent novice, a devotee,
somewhat compulsively,
like chain smoking–
letting the last one
ignite the next, without lapse,
ideas triggering concepts,
techniques begetting meaning,
translating feeling
and perception onward,
each eclipsing the last,
a chain letter,
gathering steam
in every iteration,
exponentially accruing
like compound interest
accumulates hugely
increasing wealth
with each deposit sprinkled
with time and patience.
So invest color upon color,
precept following precept,
each one challenging the next,
modulating, balancing, triggering,
producing offsprings of thought,
improving, investigating,
experimenting, evaluating,
unhesitatingly habit-forming,
and on to yet another.
Eventually, you’ll
become asymptotic to your
deepest authenticity.
Your unique voice
will begin to shine
and eventually
your flowing heart
will start to be heard,
and more than anyone else
you too will begin
to understand it a bit.
But don’t interrupt
to languish or bask.
Keep on it.
There’s the next one
to tackle from this angle,
or that perspective.
Wonder what would happen
if this (or that) was done?
The proverbial snowball
that started so small,
grows in girth
faster and faster
during each rotation.
Continue to perpetuate
the unbroken chain of creating,
resolving all your efforts
of each past into every now,
fused with courage and curiosity,
aesthetic and inspiration,
adding it up, multiplying it out,
moving forward and staying on it,
as the quality burgeons, catapults,
and all jets firing, it sky rockets.
Keep going, and someday you’ll arrive.

by Polly Castor
5/1/2020

Advice to Artists poem by Polly Castor

I work to amplify good wherever I find it. I love color, texture, beauty, great ideas, nature, metaphor, deliciousness, genuine spirituality, and exploring new territory. I encourage authenticity, nurture creativity, champion sustainability, promote peace, and hope to foster a new renaissance where we all are free to be our most fulfilled, multifaceted, and terrific selves. Read more here.

2 Comments

  1. Joan Lazarus 4 years ago

    Thanks, Polly! Beautiful rush of language echoing the idea.

  2. Joseph D Herring 4 years ago

    ” asymptotic to your deepest authenticity…” an energetic line, tense as a newly tuned harpstring, promising the real, and
    for good reason, never quite delivering.

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