Newport Natural Foods and Cafe Gallery
Opening: Friday, September 28, 6 - 8 pm
Artist's Statement: Sam Thurston
For years I had wanted to "illustrate" poems that moved me, but I never understood what would work for me. The first one that stayed in my head in my 20's held the key to how to do it, but I could not see it.
I heard a noise and wished for a sight,
I looked for life and did a shadow see
Whose substance was the sum of my delight,
Which came unseen, and so did go from me.
(Anonymous, 16th c.)
Then when I was in my 60's talking to a painter from England, Timothy Hyman, who liked to take Moleskin accordion sketchbooks and illustrate them with images of his life, some realistic and some fantastic. Had he ever "illustrated" poems I asked? 'No,' he replied, adding 'I am too old to do it now, and so are you.'
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| from Dido Queen of Carthage by Geoffrey Chaucer |
That must have been what I needed because the next day I did my first poem drawing, starting with the anonymous "I heard a noise" poem. I had finally found my formula.
If I took a poem that I did not associate with anyone else, one that I had heard no one else read or comment on, a poem that gave only a hint of physical description so I would not get pulled down into illustration, and if I let myself be moved by the mood rather than the facts of the poem, I could find a sensibility that was offered by the poet to me to use, and I could build on that.
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| from Patterson by William Carlos Williams |
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| from The Witch of Atlas by Percy Bysshe Shelly |
Will I return to them? Yes, if I can find the new equation.
- Sam Thurston
Show of Poem Drawings by Sam Thurston
Newport Natural Foods and Cafe Gallery
194 Main Street
Newport, VT 05855
(802) 334-2626
Hours: Monday thru Saturday, 8am to 8pm / Sunday, 10am to 6pm
