Music, sometimes

Sometimes I love music playing while I paint or write. Bach is especially useful for writing, I find – Glenn Gould keeps my fingers moving on the (computer) keyboard. And I could never mark assignments or do my tax returns without music.

painting in Greece

At the moment of beginning again, though, music will not help. In fact, it hinders the shift into a poetic frame of mind as I sit down to write or stand in front of the blank canvas. I wondered for a while why this might be so.

I worked out that it is because it may bring an alien rhythm into the poetic space and may divert my attention when I most need it to be concentrated.

The music may be beautiful or inspiring or moving, but in those moments of beginning I need to hear only my own mood and rhythm.

I need quiet to catch the whispers and attend to what they suggest – a glimpsed colour, a murmured phrase, a hint towards action.

from the series Weighting. Acrylic on paper, Lynne Cameron 2020