ARTISTS ARE THE MODERN DAY POETS - BUT WE DON'T CONSULT THEM AS WE SHOULD
THEY SEE THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT? BUT ARE AFRAID OF ASKING!
MUSKOKA ARTISTS PROMOTE OUR REGION OF ONTARIO, AND BOLSTER OUR STAKE IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY. THE UPCOMING TWO WEEKENDS OF THE MUSKOKA AUTUMN STUDIO TOUR, WILL ONCE AGAIN BRING THOUSANDS OF EAGER VISITORS TO OUR REGION, TRAVELLING THROUGH OUR COMMUNITIES ON THE WAY TO SEE THE PARTICIPATING ARTISTS. OUR ARTISTS AND ARTISANS ARE BUSY ALL YEAR, AND ADVERTISING THEIR WARES, STUDIOS, AND RELENTLESSLY PROMOTING MUSKOKA AS AN INSPIRATIONAL PLACE TO LIVE AND VISIT. I WONDER JUST HOW MUCH MONEY THESE REGIONAL ARTISTS SPEND ON BUSINESS ADVERTISING, AND HOW MUCH THEY BRING IN REVENUE AND SPIN-OFF ECONOMICS TO OUR COMMUNITIES EACH YEAR? I DON'T FEEL LIKE I'M GOING OUT ON A LIMB, TO STATE THIS, BUT IN TERMS OF ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE TO MUSKOKA, OUR ARTISTS ARE VERY POORLY RECOGNIZED BY LOCAL GOVERNMENT, FOR THE BENEFITS THEY CONTRIBUTE TO THE REGION ANNUALLY. WE DO NEED TO MAKE IT OFFICIAL…..THAT OUR MUNICIPALITIES CARE SO MUCH ABOUT MAINTAINING ARTISTS, AND ENCOURAGING NEW STUDIOS, THAT THEY WILL THROW OUT SOME FUTURE INCENTIVES, ESPECIALLY MAKING IT EASIER TO ESTABLISH HOME ENTERPRISES AND TO PROMOTE THEIR STUDIOS. WE SHOULDN'T UNDERESTIMATE THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE SIGNIFICANT ARTISTS WITHIN THE TOURISM DYNAMIC, AND JUST HOW CULTURALLY PLEASING IT IS, TO HAVE THEM AS NEIGHBORS. AND AS FAR AS THE MUSKOKA ARTS AND CRAFTS ASSOCIATION, WELL, IT IS OF COURSE A LEGEND IN ITS OWN TIME. THE FOUNDERS SHOULD BE ENORMOUSLY PROUD OF THE LEGACY THEY HAVE CREATED, STILL HALE AND HARDY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS…..INCLUDING THE CHAPEL GALLERY IN BRACEBRIDGE WHICH HAS BEEN HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL, AND WELL ATTENDED.
THIS MORNING, SUZANNE HAD TO BRING ME IN, OUT OF THE RAIN. MY MOTHER HAD TO DO THIS THROUGHOUT MY YOUTH. "YOU'RE GOING TO CATCH YOUR DEATH OF COLD," SHE'D BELLOW FOR ALL THE NEIGHBORS, NEAR AND FAR, TO HEAR AND THEN LOOK OUT AT THE POOR WET KID, CRAWLING OUT OF THE WOODS. IN THOSE DAYS IT WAS BRACEBRIDGE'S BAMFORD'S WOODS UP ON ALICE STREET. TODAY IT IS THE BOG HERE ON SEGWUN BOULEVARD, THAT CAPTIVATES MY IMAGINATION. ESPECIALLY ON RAINY MORNINGS LIKE THIS, WHEN THE POET IN ME EXPLODES WITH INSPIRATION. SOME FOLKS ARE INSPIRED BY BRIGHT SUNNY AUTUMN DAYS; A LIGHT WINTER SNOWFALL. I AM A RAIN MAN.
WHILE I WAS OVER IN THE WOODLAND, LISTENING TO THE PATTER OF RAIN ON THE FULL GREEN MAPLES, BIRCHES AND FERNS, I ALL OF A SUDDEN STARTED TO THINK ABOUT THE DAYS OF WANDERING BARDS, LECTURING STUDENTS ABOUT THE SUBTLE AND PROFOUND NUANCES OF THE CHANGING SEASONS, AND ALL THE RELATED ENCHANTMENTS OF MYSTERIOUS PLACES LIKE THIS. IT SEEMS LIKE AGES AGO, THAT WE PUT OUR POETS ON PEDESTALS, AS PHILOSOPHERS LEADING US TOWARD ENLIGHTENMENT. WE WANTED TO KNOW WHAT THEY SAW OF LIFE AND BEYOND FROM THE PORTALS THEY HAD CARVED OUT, TO VIEW IN SECRET, THE VASTNESS OF UNIVERSAL POSSIBILITY. THE POET WAS REVERED AND ROMANTICIZED, EVEN HERE IN MUSKOKA, WHERE THEY GATHERED AT THE MUSKOKA ASSEMBLY, HELD ON TOBIN'S ISLAND, IN LAKE ROSSEAU, DURING THE 1920'S AND 30'S. THEY FOUND MUSKOKA A VERY SPIRITUAL AND ENCHANTING PLACE IN WHICH TO CREATE THEIR POETRY, AND WRITE THEIR SHORT STORIES AND NOVELS.
WE DON'T SEEK OUT POETS TO ADVISE US MUCH ANY MORE. WE DON'T HANG OFF THEIR EVERY WORD, OR FIND PARTICULAR COMFORT OR ENLIGHTENMENT THE WAY WE ONCE DID, IN HISTORY…..WHEN GREAT BARDS WERE FAIRLY COMMON AND THEIR WORK PROLIFIC. BUT WHAT SERVED AS ENLIGHTENMENT AND CULTURAL ENHANCEMENT OVER MANY CENTURIES, HAS BECOME IRRELEVANT, BECAUSE WE HAVE FOUND NEW SOURCES OF INSPIRATION WE TRUST MORE…..ALMOST UNCONDITIONALLY. AT ONE TIME, WE MIGHT HAVE DISCUSSED WITH GREAT ENTHUSIASM THE DIFFERENCES OF OPINION BETWEEN POETS ON TOPICS OF MUTUAL INTEREST. NOW WE AREN'T AS CONCERNED ABOUT COUNTER-POINT, AS BEING THOROUGHLY ENTERTAINED. THE DAY OF A POET LEADING A GROUP OF FOLLOWERS ON A COUNTRYSIDE STROLL, RECITING PASSAGES OF RECENTLY WRITTEN MATERIAL, IS VERY MUCH A SENTIMENTAL THEME FOR HOLLYWOOD TO EXPLOIT….AS THEY HAVE IN THE PAST.
YET WHEN I STAND OUT HERE IN THIS BEAUTIFUL SOLITUDE, IN OUR VERY COMPELLING MUSKOKA WOODLAND, I MUST ADMIT STILL WISHING TO CONSULT A POET, ABOUT OUR MUTUAL INTERESTS IN LIFE AND BEYOND……AND WHETHER OR NOT, A TREE FALLING IN THE FOREST MAKES A SOUND, IF NO ONE IS AROUND TO HEAR IT HIT BACK UPON THE EARTH FROM WHICH IT GREW FROM A SEEDLING. OH, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST AS POET
I have come, these days, to rely on our artist colony in this region, to also serve as our resident, traveling poets, who through their art form, relay to us just how inspirational it is, to live and work in the Canadian hinterland. I have long admired artists, particularly as an aspiring but failed artisan myself. I look upon their creations with both envy and pride, knowing their work has, in part, been impressed by the setting of studios in similar woodland and pastoral settings, as I have wandered this morning in the light autumn rain. I see their work as visual poems, reflective of the same philosophies, once written into the tight budget of verse by poets huddled over their desks, a view of some fern-laden meadow framed in front. I am a hopeless romantic, or so my wife claims of her partner, now "soaked to the bone," as I expect she is thinking. To explain to her, that I have been temporarily residing within art, would once again confound her, and it's too early in the day to wax philosophical, about why I feel so comfortable living like a tree.
I am reminded of a favorite movie of mine, starring actor Jason Robarts, when his character desired to become "a tree." A willow I think, root and all. Well, as Hollywood does it so proficiently, he does become a tree, and it is his long willowy branches, that eventually saves his wife during a flood, and her misadventure in fast water. That's right. He uses that human capability in a willow, to bend his trunk, outstretch his branches, to reach his partner who is just about to perish in the raging run-off of a storm. Suzanne always gets a kick out of the part, where Robarts is sitting in the kitchen of his house, with feet in a pail of water, hoping to see evidence of rooting. She'll look over at me, and I'm sure the glint in her eye isn't as much evidence of passion, as it is the knowledge, her husband also wants to be a tree. Well, not really. But I do like to keep their company, especially on days like this…..as the season has begun to change, and soon these maples and birches will radiate brilliant bouquets of colored leaves across the horizon…..and the poet me, will retreat to write about the grandeur of our nature.
I am so pleased to live in a region with so many visual poets…..artists and artisans, who thrive on what we possess here naturally. They are unsung philosophers, who are willing to share their inspiration with us, much as those wandering, mindful poets did for long and long. We should pay attention, because they are the ones who stop to smell the flowers, and feel the textures of the ferns on their outstretched hands….and take in the aroma of freshly cut hay, and know the haunting sound of the wind through barn-boards and rail fence. They interpret the sounds and sculpting of new snow on the old growth, and are there when the spring sun crystalizes the winter snow, toppling it layer by layer, until it all flows into the ground, to generate another thriving meadow, and new crop of hay, and corn and the vegetables that look so magnificent when displayed in baskets at a farmers' market. It may not be that these artists paint these works, as I have written, but if you look at the progression of their art-form, it is unmistakable, that they have benefitted from being witness to this seasonal splendor, and the embrace of nature that pleasantly encroaches their studios, as if they are rooted as well, in this most alluring region on earth.
There was a time when the words etched into copious notes, by poets, were important to our own mission toward intellectual enlightenment. In modern times, for many reasons, most of the population finds inspiration in other places, by other means, and consulting Robert Frost or Robert Browning to send them forth on a day's adventure, just doesn't measure-up to contemporary realities. Maybe we should read more, and dream more aggressively, and seek answers to life and existence. More likely we will opt for something else to stir us within. As with the huge advances of music and musicians, artists continue to be studied and their work coveted, much as those signed first editions, of the latest poems were several centuries past. Yet for the old and sentimental, we can see the new reality of poetry thriving within music and art, and of this my friends, Muskoka abounds with this creative energy……and there is much for us to learn and enjoy.
There are numerous art galleries in our region, displaying the superb work of Canadian, Ontario and regional artists, along with many, many studios that you can visit. One of the most popular of course, is the annual Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour, now on two weekends in mid to late September. Check their listing online to find out more details about the popular Muskoka countryside tour. I have enjoyed the tour many times myself, and personally know a number of the participating artists……and they are important assets to the representation of our region, and of course, to the economy which has benefitted from their work since the 1970's when the tour officially began.
Maybe I'll see you out on the tour. Thanks so much for joining today's blog. If you find a poet out there, let me know. Please drop by again soon. I enjoy your company.
It's still raining. Suzanne is at work. I'm going for a walk. See you!
No comments:
Post a Comment