My poetry likewise draws from a range of traditions, from ancient to modern, eastern and western. The most important of these are traditional English verse, middle & old English alliterative verse, and both the Chinese and Japanese poetic traditions (which, it should be noted, are more formal then more recent translations might suggest). My inclination to more structured and formal verse is (I believe) strongly influenced by my autism. In that I find that far from limiting my expression, formal structures (i.e. rhyme, metres, alliteration, stanza, etc.), by giving my logical mind something to chew on, frees my emotional and spiritual mind to have more, not less expression. I also personally find structured verse more memerable then ‘free verse’, and often more emotionally effective as well.
Thank you, Michael Hannon
Let me start by letting you know that I am not sane, being diagnosed with clinical depression and asperger’s syndrome. These conditions have effected both my ideas, and practice of art, making me more sceptical of received wisdom, as well as leading me to look at questions of meaning in words and images, and how they relate to each other.
There is, and has been for over a century, a certain obsession with so called originality in the arts. By and large
of a tradition can be, and often is, a source of both meaning & innovation, not just a source of constraint.
These works use Varied media, Eastern & Western watercolor, ink painting, pen & ink, acrylics, scratch board and others. I especially draw upon traditions that involve combinations of both text and image, such as manuscipt illumination, and the Asian tradition of poems on paintings.
“originality” now means art as it has
now been accepted and done for a century.
I for one prefer to roam a range of historic traditions, rather than be straitjacketed by a very limited current tradition, that likes to pretend that it is not a tradition, and does not have constraints. I believe that most of what we call progress and originality throughout history has been built upon the past, and while there may be danger at times of becoming stagnant by worshiping the past too rigorously, there is certainly also a danger of regression in losing the past. It is worth remembering that the renaissance, the most creative and innovative period in western history was both justified and driven by the past, i.e. ancient (largely Greco-Roman) history. To be part