The Nature of Vibrations
In this issue: basil leaves and community gardens, library stacks, Angelina Weld Grimké and Nicolas de Staël, abstract art, queer writers, Moonknight, and a note on gun safety
What have we been making?
Anna
This month I’ve colored another few chapters of Özge Samanci’s graphic novel Evil Eye and started an illustration for a non-profit based in California. But since I can’t show either of those yet, here’s a drawing I made of my new basil plant!
Rachel
Every time I visit the Worcester Art Museum, I inevitably find myself in the library. On one such visit, I came across a text (a wide thin book of art theory whose name I have forgotten) on a low shelf as I squatted skimming the faded laminate spines. I rippled through it and the pages closed up one on the next like a zipper. I chose a random page and at the bottom spotted the following quotation:
“One never paints what one sees or thinks one sees; one paints, under the stress of a thousand vibrations, the shock received.” - Nicolas de Staël
Reading this quote, I was enlightened. I thought the sentiment deeply beautiful, rooted in the inherent subjectivity of the viewer, proclaiming so shortly and sharply the artist’s goal: by hand and heart, by mind and eye, to transmit “the shock received.” I read in that quotation the reasons for symbol and metaphor. I read in it the pain of art and of creation, the stress, the pressure, the vibrational energy of the world. I read in it the vitality of the artist’s interior mind, and the importance of giving to the reader not what was factual, but rather what was felt.
It freed me from the literal and granted me the many permissions of fiction.
In an analysis of Staël’s work, C. John Holcombe writes, “De Staël's concern was light: the sky (here [in Agrigente, featured above] unbearably bright and so painted black), and the glare and shimmer from objects in the fierce Mediterranean sun (road and buildings). More exactly, De Staël's concern was the effect of the light on him, the painter, who had to find painterly equivalents to his 'impressions before nature' (as Cézanne put it).”
This impulse, this love of light, and even Staël’s painting itself, reminds me of my own writing: “the cream square buildings, their sides colored like fire and night in walls of light and shadow, standing like empty sentinels; black birds haloed in dusk dotting the reddening sky as they scatter toward the horizon” (from “Volcano”).
Staël’s concern, and mine as well, is not the strict visual reality of the world, but its effect on the viewer. To do this, he paints not what he “sees or thinks [he] sees,” but rather its impression on him — the blinding light of sky, the vivid light and heat of the buildings so stark and glaring and lined in red. His painting can be said to be almost an act of metaphor, that which is able to show us more than is literally there.
In a letter to a student who inquired about her poetry, black queer poet Angelina Weld Grimké wrote in similar words about color and vibration in relation to language:
“The mood is the spiritual atmosphere. Symbolic also. I love colors and contrasts. Suggestion. […]
The more vivid the physical picture the more vivid the vibrations in the mind of the reader or listener. Each word has its different wavelength, vibration. Colors, trees flowers skies meadows. The more concrete, definite vivid the picture the more vivid the vibration of word in the reader or listener.
And what is word? May it not be a sort of singing in the harp strings of the mind? Then on the principle of sympathetic vibration is there not in nature a harp singing also to be found. . . .”
In response to this passage, Akasha Gloria Hull writes, “[Grimké’s] theory of composition here is essentially romantic […] the poetry arises from within herself.” It certainly is romantic — a notion of love between the world and the self, between their congruence and dissonace, their vibrating as one. The world and the word each leave an impression, a symbol, a mood, a vibration. The act of the artist is to find vibrations that might move together, that might leave us, the viewer, with the same sort of shock.
The harp of nature and of art sing in harmony. They may not be exactly the same tune, but rather amplify one another’s beauty through their dissonance. The poetry from within herself and the poetry without herself meet at the edge of the page and the eye of the viewer. And in them, a new harp is set singing.
What Have We Been Enjoying?
Anna
I highly enjoyed watching the Netflix series Moonknight, which is my favorite thing that Marvel has produced yet. It gets pretty weird and Oscar Issac does an incredible job in the role.
I also read the webcomic Check Please by Ngozi Ukazu. It’s a cute comedic comic following the life and romance of a hockey player at a New England college. If you want something light and fun I highly recommend it!
Rachel
I got a community garden plot in Somerville!! The waitlist is usually a year or two long, so this is a sudden but welcome surprise. I am so excited to get growing in what Annie Dillard calls, “the real hot stuff […] the mind-melting weeding weather.” I am hoping to chronicle my experience and write some creative nonfiction pieces/essays about gardening, summer, and the smell of tomato leaves.
I would also like to plug another newsletter called Plus Lit. The newsletter is a platform to uplift and highlight queer writers. I recently subscribed, and am in love with what I have read. The founder and author, Alexandra, wrote a phenomenal review of Bryan Washington's Memorial. I found so much I loved in Alexandra's piece from their exquisite, insightful writing (the WHOLE final paragraph just sings with poetic music) to a real tenderness that reaches out to the reader with open arms. I recommend checking out their welcome post to learn more about the project.
In the midst of the world’s most recent bout of horrible blows to humanity, Plus Lit — self-proclaimed as “the gay version of your high school AP Lit class/the trans version too” — promises to be a refuge and a balm of kindness, inclusivity, and love in all its forms.
A QUICK NOTE ABOUT “BUY ME A COFFEE”: I want to thank everyone for your support and love no matter how you share it, and for those of you who are able to contribute financially I cannot express how much I appreciate it. In this vein I want to inform you that in light of all that has transpired in May, all of the contributions we receive in June will be donated to Everytown for Gun Safety. Or feel free to donate yourself HERE.
We love you all!! Thanks again and stay safe <3