Art from the ashes

Photo courtesy Richard Norwood Richard Norwood,
a fifth-year political science student, painted this mural in
response to the events that took place on Sept. 11.

By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff It’s been a month since the events
in New York and Washington, D.C. that sent America reeling, and the
state of shock and disbelief has transformed, for some, to a
breeding ground for creativity. Artists of all kinds are reacting
to the attacks, channeling their feelings into creative expression.
For some this is a method of sorting through traumatic events, for
other it’s important as a stimulator of dialogue. “It
put everything in perspective and it made me realize just what
happened. At the time it was so surreal … Writing it out on paper
made it more real to me. It took a little of the surrealness out of
it.” said Kelsey Kolberg, a fourth-year English student,
about a poem she wrote concerning the morning of Sept. 11.
“Anytime I have feelings bottled up inside I just want to
write it out to make it become more tangible,” Kolberg added.
While the topic of these creative pieces is an international event,
many of the artists have a tendency to represent them, like most
subjects, from their own perspective. “Art making is a
reflection of your personal philosophy, your personal concerns and
your social concerns. The way you look at life is reflected in your
artwork,” said Barbara Drucker, the chair of the art
department. The paintings, poems and other forms of creative
personal expression may have stemmed from a lot of planning and
previous thought, or may have been more impromptu. “I
didn’t really think about it at all. I just started painting
… My work is just totally spontaneous,” Norwood said. In
some cases of pre-planned work, students were given an assignment
to respond to the attacks. Joy Harjo, an English professor who
teaching a poetry workshop, asked her students to write about where
they were on Sept. 11. She felt that it would help the students
deal with their feelings, as well as to produce good work. “I
think it was important and I think it was useful. I think they felt
good having some place to express it,” said Harjo. For
Kolberg, one of her students, writing is a natural response to
troubling events. She wrote her poem before it was assigned, to
help her organize her thoughts on the subject. “I think
people handle crisis and emotion in different ways. This is my
outlet for it,” Kolberg said. While it may be an automatic
response, tackling such a major event in a creative way is not an
easy task, according to Harjo. “It can be difficult when
you’re smack in the middle of something to respond
creatively,” she said. Artistic expression can serve the
purpose of helping the artist and stimulating conversation among
the viewers and readers. “It think it works both ways. I
think it’s to work through whatever it is ““ to work
through a form, to work through an impetus, but people do art to
communicate,” Harjo said. One of the primary topics that will
be communicated from the artist to the viewer or reader is the
political ramifications of the attacks. Richard Norwood, a
fifth-year political science student, painted a mural in reaction
to the destruction of the World Trade Center. “I’m
extremely passionate about politics in general and how politics
affects our day to day lives,” Norwood said about why he
decided to create the mural. Even though works that examine the
political side of the events are related in subject to the speeches
and essays delivered by politicians, they approach the topic in a
different way. “With anything political, you usually have to
sift through the layers to find the truth, and sometimes there
isn’t a truth. You don’t write poetry to lie,”
Harjo said. These tough topics are likely to linger in the artistic
world for a long time, even in works that do not directly address
them. “The event will surface again and again. Underlying
that there are always the themes of violence in art. There are
always political discussions in art making. And there are always
personal reactions in art making,” Drucker said. These
responses, even the ones that end up bringing out reactions from
other people, are sometimes created for the artist alone. “I
wrote it just for myself but I ended up sharing it with a few
people,” said Kolberg about her poem. Norwood also said that
he painted the mural without thinking about showing it to others,
but in the end several people saw it. In an odd reversal, this
tragedy, one of the worst that this country has seen, has resulted
in creative works that have helped both those who made them and
those who saw them. Students that have drawn on their creative
talent to help themselves and others get through a tough time have
created something that is the opposite the disaster that everyone
has been seeing on the news. “It’s therapeutic. What
you’re dealing with is destruction, and the polar opposite of
destruction is creation,” Harjo said. “The energy turns
in that direction.”