Poetics

October 2018

Riverside Gallery, Oxford, Nova Scotia with Diane Wile-Brumm & Shannon Bell

Ut pictura poesis, Latin – “As is painting so is poetry.” – Horace

With ut pictura poesis, Horace proposed that poetry merited the same careful interpretation that was, in Horace’s day, reserved for painting. The similarities and differences between poetry and painting have been an on-going dialogue filled with dissent down through the ages.

For the purpose of this exhibition, ‘Poetics’, we side with Voltaire – ‘painting is voiceless poetry and the poetry is speaking painting’. We feel that both poetry and painting use imagery, symbolism, tone and themes. Artists in both mediums have to make decisions about tension, focal point, pattern and rhythm. All three of us have our favourite poets, the writers that speak to us, touching an emotional chord, inspiring our own creations for this exhibition.

Poetics was an idea that took many years to realize. The Riverside Gallery offered an opportunity to show some of the work we had created with this theme in mind.