Daily Nourishment for August 25, 2024: What Is Art for with Lauren Winner
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 50 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 13 minutes
Interviewer: What is art for?
Kara Walker: Figuring it out.
Pause.
For one minute, gaze at this 1972 painting by Alma Thomas, Late Night Reflections. Where does your gaze land? How does your body feel as you gaze?
Prompt.
Alma Thomas (1891-1978) studied art at Howard University, and then, for many years, alongside her career as a junior high teacher, she worked in gouache, watercolor, oil— and sometimes even made marionettes.
She was able to commit herself wholly to her own painting once she retired from teaching, near the age of 70.
Once (in fact, only months before she died), Thomas gave an interview to the Washington Post, in which she recalled:
“In 1964, I had a terrific attack of arthritis. I thought, This is the end, I'll never be able to move my arms again, or walk. Just then I was offered retrospective of my paintings, at Howard University. I thought about it. I recovered my health. And I said, 'I'll try.' I decided to try to paint something different from anything I'd ever done. Different from anything I'd ever seen. I thought to myself, That must be accomplished. So I sat down right in that chair, that red chair here in my living room, and I looked at the window. And you can see exactly what I saw, right before my eyes, from where I was sitting in the chair. Why, the tree! The holly tree! I looked at the tree in the window, and that became my inspiration. There are six patterns in there right now that I can see. And every morning since then, the wind has given me new colors through the windowpanes. I got some watercolors and some crayons, and I began dabbling. And that's how it all began. The works have changed in many ways, but they are still all little dabs of paint that spread out very free. So that tree changed my whole career, my whole way of thinking. I never even go to the other windows anymore.”
Practice.
Look out a window. Can you imagine what you see becoming the basis, the inspiration, of years of work? Begin writing toward those years, right now, for ten minutes.
Want More?
Read “The Art of Alma Thomas Comes Full Circle at the Phillips” and “Artist Profile: Alma Thomas & the Washington Scene”
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Upcoming Workshops & Gatherings
—The August Co-Writing Schedule is live.
—Spiritual Direction for Writers® + Enneagram for Creativity Gathering will take place on Friday, September 27th and Saturday, September 28th. Recordings will be available if you can’t join us live. You can register here.
—August 31— Online Revision Stations Designed by Lauren F. Winner
Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Lauren Winner.
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