On Valentine’s Day, the national day of love, I attended a joint poetry reading/art show at the State of the Art Gallery in downtown Ithaca. There I witnessed a shared love not just for art itself, but for creation and collaboration. Community artists had come together from the shadows of reclusive studio apartments and Gimme! corner tables to give and receive inspiration. The myth of the brooding, isolated artist holds intrigue for many, but just as our elementary school teachers advised us, piggybacking off the ideas of others often expands your own thinking. The art created through direct inspiration and collaboration could never have been created with only one mind at work.
Here’s how it worked: local poets were invited to submit poetry to the program, and local visual artists who had agreed to participate chose a poem to use as personal inspiration. The program was based heavily on ekphrasis, which is essentially a device in which one medium of art attempts to relate to another medium by catching its form and essence through description.
At the event I attended, the poet-artist pair presented their work together: the poet read, and the artist introduced his/her piece, explaining in detail why the poem appealed to them and how they tried to include its theme, voice, imagery, etc. In most cases, the artist and poet engaged in a heartfelt dialogue up in front of the audience, thanking the other for his/her unique interpretation. Publically, they excitedly relished their shared fascination with teacups and their symbolism, (poet Zee Zahava and photographer Terry Plater), or a common personal tie to Cuba that leaked into both of their works.
The whole undertaking, organized by former Tompkins County Poet Laureate Tish Pearlman, is in my opinion both an example of Ithaca’s rich artistic culture, as well as its strong value on community and working together. It was an exciting reminder that while art is often deeply personal and esoteric, it can also be a helpful vessel for human connection.
Of course, art isn’t the only thing that benefits from sharing and piggybacking. Ideas of any kind need other ideas to bounce off of, new minds to filter through. I left the Lyric Visions art show pondering the collaborative (or, conversely, the anti-collaborative) nature of school; high school feels like a highly personal journey, with most tests and assignments graded on the basis of your completely individual and isolated intelligence and merit. But, of course, life is much more teamwork and interaction, and much less solitary ability. Watching the poets and artists thank one another for what they each made it possible for the other to create, it was clear to me that education and achievement are much more directly and easily reached when the undertaking is made together.
Unfortunately, there are no more presentations of the Lyric Visions show, but I encourage all students in Ithaca to look into other collaborative projects with local artists. The art is beautiful, thought-provoking, and refreshing, and the same can be said of the web of shared ideas and inspiration.