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| Cressida's Transformations - art and photography |
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One of the great scholars of the 20th century is American Stanley Burnshaw (1906- ).
I’ve had the privilege of corresponding with Mr Burnshaw who gave me permission
to quote from his remarkable book, “The Seamless Web”. While it is a work that examines poetry it contains much wisdom and advice for the artistically creative person.
In his introduction to “The Seamless Web” Mr Burnshaw refers to comments made by the writer and critic Sir Herbert Read in a discussion about creative originality:
‘From time to time along comes a special kind of craftsman, special because he possesses a particular vision of the world, a peculiar way of seeing the world, and this leads to the
modification of the traditional forms of expression, to a transformation.’
He goes on to say that the artist is, ‘often unconscious of his discovery – it lurks in the background of his canvas. It is not intentional, it is not willed. Thus, we are thrown
back on the individual – on the uniqueness of his mental disposition and the privateness of his experience. But this is where the difficulty arises, for it is not the sense of privateness, or the peculiarity of the personality, that the artist expresses when he is being most original.’
Compiled by Kathleen Notman
