It is a free event.
Bring a poem, an idea for a poem, or a vision that haunts you, which you might turn into a poem.
Nick uses his experience and knowledge of teaching creativity in therapy for over thirty years to draw out material buried in your unconscious mind.
An example of blending an image with lines from a poem.
For background to the workshop read on below:
Poetry and Pictures: a
manifesto.
From the earliest days of printing, a world of visual images with associated thought and feeling, juxtaposed with text has been part of the western way of enculturation, to help in the process of translating meaningless ciphers, squiggles on a page, into the stuff of inner experience, into understood written words, leaping from the page or screen into constructs of a mental world.
From the earliest days of printing, a world of visual images with associated thought and feeling, juxtaposed with text has been part of the western way of enculturation, to help in the process of translating meaningless ciphers, squiggles on a page, into the stuff of inner experience, into understood written words, leaping from the page or screen into constructs of a mental world.
I will never forget the moment when words and images
entwined and danced for me as I began to understand written text for the first
time. It was like the moment when stumbling and sinking transform into skiing
and swimming as learning transforms to achieving.
The real father of Poetry and Pictures as a genre has to be William Blake, a visual artist by trade, and one of the greatest poets in the English language. More recently, the last poet laureate, Ted Hughes, set the ball rolling for modern artists with his book, “The Remains of Elmet”. He wrote poems specifically for a photographer’s art works here. In a second book, “River”, he juxtaposed poetry with an artist’s photographs without connecting them more intimately.
Hughes only wrote the poetry. He collaborated with
others to create these poem-picture works. We are encouraging such
collaborative work, and are open to both photographers and poets, but we are
mostly focused on creating a combined work made by one author. “Poetry and
Pictures” is, I believe, the first attempt to establish the two arts together
as a genre for the twenty first century.
Photography has always struggled to establish its
credentials as an Art form in its own right. Poetry in turn, has struggled to
make a case that it is still relevant to this fast changing world. Much modern
writing is as uninspiring as a snapshot from a cheap digital camera. I believe
that combining ideas expressed visually with ideas expressed in words can make
for a powerful medium of expression, both folk art and high art. The idea is to
link a poem with a picture or series of pictures. The two can also blend
together into a single visual image, which is both poetry and photography. I am
not sure how many variations on the overall theme will emerge. Already there
are versions I had not dreamed about. I find the merging of words into visual
art in graphic artistry a particularly inspiring form. Poetry condenses
experience. A photographer or graphic artist can do the same with a visual
image.
VIDEO POETRY
Some of us are beginning to explore spoken poetry alongside
a series of video images.
You can see examples here:
and here:
Critical evaluation
Poetry and Pictures will receive much unkind critical comment from both poets and visual artists. A poetry critic is likely to think that a specific image can only diminish the power of the inner imagery generated by a poem. Sometimes and for some people this will be true. At others it will not. Poets may write in such a way that the two interweave.
Visual artists often protest that words detract from the image. But our culture is saturated with low grade imagery, devoid of emotional content. Some images are poetic on their own. Most are not. Individual P&P artists are building their own fascinating, challenging, even riveting approaches to this work. It is much too early to make adequate judgements.
I am indebted to Martin Kimeldorf, a member of the Poetry and Pictures International Group, currently hosted on the flickr website, for the suggestion that we are creating a new folk art. Just as great novels grow out of fairy tales and great symphonies build from folk songs, so we may be able to create works of art at many different levels of merit and complexity. The way we identify ourselves as human beings and relate to each other as people is already being transformed by web formats such as Facebook, and twitter, as well as weblogs. Poetry and Pictures can be incorporated into such a web format to create a way for everyone to develop self expression, self affirmation, a new kind of intimacy, friendship and better social relationships. The international group I have formed currently uses these very powerful tools for communication both in words and pictures which is provided by flickr.com. It is not perfect, since it is primarily designed for photo sharing rather than poetry. But the group already had 180 members within a month of starting, and representatives from Europe, North America and
BBC GCSE revision
Anyone teaching or taking GCSE English will now be familiar
with images being run alongside poetry. The BBC has made this a major feature
of its revision format.
Biographical note
Nick Owen is a poet, playwright and photographer with over
thirty years experience in the field of personal development education, working
with all ages from unborn babies and their parents through to old people’s
reminiscence groups. He has been a director of a school of psychotherapy. Nick
recently won the Witney Calendar Photography competition.
To find out more visit www.nickowenphotography.co.uk
A course in poem-picture making at the Ashmolean Museum
Learn to use
both sides of your brain to create images and poems which combine to make
"poem-picture art". Working from objects in the museum the course
helps you towards a public performance and display at the Ashmolean. In four
two-hour sessions you learn about creating images from museum objects and
writing poems to go with them. The museum can supply cameras and art materials
or you can bring your own. The course leader, Nick Owen, uses process-oriented
psychology to develop your writing skills.
People who have
done the art appreciation and photography courses at the Ashmolean may find
this course builds on from those courses.
More information
from the museum education department, the “What’s On” Brochure for the autumn
or
Poetry Recitals at the Ashmolean Museum
In celebration
of Edward Lear, the famous Victorian poet and artist, the Ashmolean offers
three sets of poetry readings in galleries at the museum this autumn. Some of
the best Oxfordshire poets will share poems written to celebrate Edward Lear’s
works, or other objects in the museum. Visitors will gather in the Randolf
Gallery and be led to spots in the museum, where poets both read and explain
their work. People who join the “poetry and pictures” course this autumn will
also be able to read their work at a special recital on 17 November.
Times 12.00 -
13.30 and 14.30 - 16.00
Dates 6 October,
3 November, 17 November
More information
from the museum education department, the “What’s On” Brochure for the autumn
or
