A letter to a young artist - Essay Example

New York. 15 February My Dear Young Artist, I am pleased that you have a conviction in your heart that you can be able to speak to the world using art. Remember that art is all about encapsulating your own ideas in words or actions that bring whatever is more complex to become simpler to your audience. It should be able to bring the reader out of the usual and more often give those glimpses of a more illumining reality. For this to be successful, a poet has to possess a lot of skills, an understanding of their surrounding, courage, energy and heart to successfully produce a good work of art.

When you have all these skills within you, then you are in a perfect position to start writing and you will seek piece of advice from none and actually no one else can help you write better. A good artist must be confident of what he speaks about; it defines any successful creative writer who is self-motivated to express his feelings without fear. It is advisable to take charge of what you are talking about as if no one else has the background information except you. Pretend that you are the first one to have knowledge of that topic you are talking about as that would give you more confidence and boost your self-esteem to be able to explore more.

It is self-esteem that will provide you with a feeling that everything you are doing will eventually succeed and that you will reach your audience and catch their attention. Just like I mentioned earlier, no one can help you be the best writer, even building self-esteem is something that cannot be built from external forces. It has to be yourself and your own self that shape you as a writer. A good piece of art is born within and not made; it is from the heart and can never be faked. It comes within, and after you have realized that you can actually affect the things that surround you.

Feelings are always different from one person to another. They should never be compared, and that is why originality is paramount to anyone writing any piece of art. Originality comes from one’s unique experiences and expressions. These experiences ultimately integrate themselves within you; remember that your self-esteem also stems from within. Self-esteem does not come from reading voluminous books that were written by great authors, or surrounding yourself with things and people that seem to increase your value.

It comes from your realization of the value of your originality and innate skills. The success of a poet also rests with on whwhat you write about and how you write. But, there are no material resources to guide you on these things. In fact, good poets do not need to be told what to talk about because they are provided by a variety of themes in their daily routines. From your surroundings, come up with something to write about and as you write use the best form. It could be, for example, using rhyme to convey your ideas.

It does not mean that one has to always rely on vocabulary to expressing their feelings. While deciding what and how to write, remember that your target is to convey a message to your audience who must be able to get the intended information. To achieve this end, keep your style and message simple and ordinary rather than being too complex. There are so many who uphold the faulty assumption that poetry is difficult. This perspective has to a large extent affected people’s willingness to read and understand poetry.

That is why the needs of the audience must be put into consideration while writing a piece so that they can be involved in the analysis. These emotional challenges also affect the artists in their writing. That is why they end up seeking help from people they believe to be experts. It is not bad to consult from friends and relatives, but you should remember that poetry in itself comprises the basic tools that have the ability to help the audience to appreciate, understand and evaluate them more successfully.

The common perception of poetry as a difficult genre to read or write can be changed if a writer uses the features of the poetry effectively to invite reader’s involvement and render it easy for analysis. As you are aware, poetry uses various rhetorical devices: symbolism, figurative language and syntactical tricks. The work of art requires from the poets the basic knowledge of all this machinery in order to handle it successfully. It is therefore appropriate that the young poets take into consideration that poetry is not all about the big jargons, but a mere expression of a person’s feelings through simple and clear words that are carefully selected and arranged in an attractive manner using rhetorical devices.

If you put these into consideration as a young artist, your career will be successful and more aspiring artists will run to you for help even though I have clearly said that artists, and poets, especially, should not depend on others for help and guidance to become a good poet. I surely know of no other advice than this: understand yourself and your surroundings. From within yourself, you can find inspiration and self-esteem. From your surroundings, you can get amazing themes to write about or messages you want to convey.

Also, become familiar with rhetorical devices and do not believe the myth that poetry is difficult. Develop a style which enables easy analysis of your poetry and makes readers appreciate it well.