Communing with Art through Poetry

Melinda Palacio

*An earlier version of this article was previously published in the Santa Barbara How do you best enjoy an art exhibit? Do you read every description ahead of time, or after you’ve had a chance to feast your eyes on the artwork? 

 

Last week, I offered a writing workshop that drew a wide variety of people; I even saw someone from my gym who is not a writer. In the all-levels writing workshop, my favorite students were those who have never taken a writing class, who took a chance on themselves and were brave enough to share their work alongside the published authors and poets who participated. This is a workshop that I cannot wait to lead again. It was fun for me and fun for everyone who participated. 

 

For the workshop, I chose the inside/outside gallery at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The collection features one of my new favorite artworks, a Keith Mayerson painting entitled: Someday we’ll find It, the Rainbow Connection, the lovers, the dreamers, and me 2023. The painting is of Kermit the Frog riding out of the swamp to Hollywood on a yellow bicycle. I can’t think of a happier image. Prior to the workshop, I stopped by the gallery to spend some time with Kermit. Everyone who sees this painting smiles. It has a happy effect on people. 

 

Even if you somehow managed to have never seen Sesame Street or a Muppet Movie or know what a Muppet is, the idea of a fuzzy green frog, dressed in an equally green collar, riding a yellow bicycle with basket is cheerful enough. For someone new to writing, the art is accessible. What grabbed me, besides the subject Kermit, was the dappled light, the determination on Kermit’s face to peddle through any circumstance to meet his goals and the collective knowing that ‘we will find it, the rainbow connection.’ There’s a sense that Kermit is riding outside of his world into the unknown, an adventure not just for himself, but for his community and audience. The collision between the inner world and the outer in a single artwork is what connects each piece in the Inside/Outside gallery. The external scene informs the inner world, whether real, fictional or in between. 

 

A cohort of sixteen people joined the workshop. Everyone had at least thirty minutes of uninterrupted time to write about an artwork in the gallery. The experience of sitting with a work of art and writing is meditative. Next time you can't get out into nature, try an art museum.