You don't want to love an artist...

in poetry •  7 years ago  (edited)

let me assure you -
you don’t want to love an artist.
and in case you forget
let me remind you -
you don’t want to love an artist.
when you look at an artist,
they will look through you and into their art.
you are their art
or their art is you.
and when you become art
you become some abstract being and thing,
a passageway that they will so calmly and tormentedly walk through
in order to capture you on canvas and in spills of oils and inks.
you will become a holographic version of yourself
they will use your soul to build breathtaking moments,
and ultimately your love will be used for the greater good -
to capture the spectacular phenomena of what it is to be human.

you will become a walking, breathing billboard -
everything good and bad, truthful and deceitful about you,
every word you said, feeling you felt, and moment you had
illustrated and exploited
shot to the moon
embellished by the stars
so all the world can see.

-B.faye

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Check out more poetry on my steemit blog: @itinerantartist

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This is so true. If I may, I'm considering writing a follow-up poem entitled "You Don't Want to Be an Artist's Cat," in which I describe the ways that I depict my poor cat in every writing medium I've written in. In all seriousness, though, I've been thinking a lot about this lately. My current girlfriend doesn't show up in a lot of my poetry. And I'm realizing it's because my poetry usually stems from feelings of pain, loss, and rejection. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for my art, she makes me happy and less inclined to write poetry. Parts of her still sneak into other mediums, though :)

this is amazing on so many levels - haha! i can imagine the cat just not caring at all about an enthusiastic artist always running around the home/studio excitedly creating things. or maybe scoffing at the absurdity of the works or the eccentric qualities artists tend to embody ;p

im a total cat person, for the record ;D

and yea - i can relate on that level. a lot of my work has pain in it, and therefore often relationships don't inspire the writing until post-relationship (I'm a total Adele-aholic ).

Hi. Pretty post. I wanted to comment and spent a few minutes thinking what to say, then realized that I just couldn't make myself express my feelings. I felt a bit attacked as an artist, to be honest, lol. You drawing looks a lot like the drawings I make sometimes. Long-ass nose, but overall pretty cool looking.

I found this painting online. Wanted to share. The painting itself is not my style at all, but the name is. "Only light, nothing less". Perception, images. I always teach it like this when people ask me what I look for when I draw. Light with shapes, or shapes of light.

"Only light, nothing less" by *touchofthesoul*
source

thank you for sharing. you shouldnt feel attacked - this is written as a provocation of trying to analyze the demise of some aspects of relationships with artists. it is in fact vague for a reason, because the way i wrote it - it could be written from the perspective of the artist themself, warning someone to stay away. it could be written from the perspective of the artists lover, hurt from the relationship but trying to understand the why and how. it could also be written from the artist about loving another artist, or even the internal battle of loving theirself - and finding theirself.

the tone is harsh, yes, but its also soft, because i wanted that internal struggle to be apparent .

hope that makes you like it a little more, or at least to lose the feeling of attack. love to you :)

I feel more attacked by the idea that as an artist I will always show people who don't want to be shown. I don't know if this is true and it bothers me to think that I may be an inherent betrayer of privacies, that my art is by default, and pardon the word, prostituting the ones who've trusted me to keep their secrets safe with me.

I don't feel attacked by you directly, just the idea. Don't worry. <3 Hug.

as difficult as it is to swallow, i absolutely love considering your words as weighted as they are. it is pervasive, maybe not always true, but in many cases is. and in some cases artists shield or protect the identity of those muses, while in other cases muses are celebrated and paraded whether they want it or not. think of every break-up ever written. history is told by the ones who hold the pen, the ones with the voice. every artist is telling their story. every muse is listening.

such an interesting thing to consider, as ive never quite thought of it before. my art is very guided by muses, real muses in real life who have names and their own perspectives and identities. and yes, i drag my feelings into the limelight but i do my best to shield their identity and try not to be so one-sided. it is difficult tho. how does an artist give a voice to a muse? should they? what does it mean for the art?

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This is so intense but real and honest. Life and relationships are hard for artists... as art will always come first. Best to find someone who understands and respects this truth, and for artists to respect and love themselves for who they are. It might be a wild ride, but certainly not boring. Love this piece, thanks for sharing :)

thanks for appreciating it! its written in a way thats meant to be provocative, but yes theres a lot of truth in it. the intensity of the emotions and relationship written in way that you feel more than you think. its not completely sensible, but neither are we (artists or people in general).
:)