“The world only concerns me in so far as I feel a certain debt and duty towards it and out of gratitude want to leave some souvenir in the shape of drawings or pictures – not made to please a certain tendency in art, but to express sincere human feeling.” — Vincent van Gogh
Did you know that in his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh earned only $109 from all his paintings? Granted, $109 was worth more back then than it is now, but if he were living today he’d be a millionaire.
I uncovered this fact in a book that was recommended to me recently: If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland. It’s a skinny thing I started the other night just before nodding off. Sleepiness aside (it had nothing to do with the material I was reading), I didn’t forget to dog-ear the corner of page 19, where Ueland says:
“By painting the sky, van Gogh was able to see it and adore it better than if he had just looked at it. In the same way…you will never know what your husband looks like until you try to draw him, and you will never understand him unless you try to write his story.”
Can’t most of us writers completely relate? Okay, I will not speak for all of you, perhaps, but I’m thinking about what Natalie Goldberg said in Writing Down the Bones, about how “Writers live twice.” We live first through our experiences, and a second time through writing about them.
How much richer are our experiences when we pull back to reflect on them, then fashion a story about them? This, to me, is one of the most wonderful aspects of writing! It is why I can’t ever imagine not writing. Life comes alive to me through recounting things with which I have had a face-to-face encounter (including things unseen). Everything has more meaning. And writing carries with it the added benefit of potentially giving life to others through the sharing of our accounts – icing on an already delicious cake.
Once, when I shared a piece of my writing with someone who doesn’t really understand the writer’s world, he called me a brooder, hinting that I was wasting time dwelling on what has already taken place.
Au, contraire! Of course, he is entitled to his opinion, but to me, this is the very definition of writing and why it’s so important; in fact why any expression of art is important. Van Gogh painted sunsets and other nature scenes based on what he had seen and experienced. After capturing those scenes in his mind and brooding on them, he offered his impressions to the rest of the world. And we are all the richer because of it.
Do not discount what you are meant to do as a writer even if others don’t understand it. Keep at it. After all, who knows when your version of the world might help change it?
Q4U: What most compels you to write?
Brenda Ueland! I love that book. (She was from Minneapolis, you know!) Such sass and spirit…a writing book that charged me up to go and do it.
I’ll have to crack it open again to refresh myself, but one of my lasting takeaways was that Brenda was very choosy about her writing; she made a point to take on writing assignments that truly interested. This may sound like a luxury, but I think it’s a wise guiding principle.
Thanks for another great post, Roxane! I look forward to Wednesdays because of this blog! 🙂
Christina, I got your comment right after the post went up last night. It was a great way to end my evening. And I think you’ve hit on something important. I find so much more good energy when I am working on projects about which I am passionate. Our writing really comes alive with such work, and it is wise of us to stay near to those projects that feed us in that way. Thanks for your thoughts, and your very sweet comment at the end. Happy to give your hump day a bit of a lift! 🙂
Roxane, I must get this book, as I have seen so many references to it lately! Yes, I completely agree with her statement about living twice and your comments about that. Writing–the mental exercise of it–helps me process emotions and events, helping me better nderstand myself and the world and show it to others.
Your concluding sentence is the best motivation to keep writing, keep brooding, keep creating, and connecting. I love how art inspires art. Gosh, saying we write about the every day is like saying that Van Gogh just copied what we already see.
Jane, yes, it’s a good one!
Mary, that is profound. 🙂
Ahh, Writing down the Bones is in my stack of re-reads… I am re-awakening to a part of my life that has been so dormant for so long. I am in a continuous state of renewal and tapping into where my heart seems to be leading me. Thank you for the Brenda Ueland reference! Will check it out…
I find I am compelled to write simply to make sense of my world… for now I am happy just with that 🙂