It’s cold and stormy as I write this post, with the promise of flooding in the next few days. And when the house feels chilly, Grandma fires up the stove and starts cooking. Scones, shortbread, cranberry nut bread – I have veganized all my old favorite recipes, and this is the time of year to indulge in comfort foods.
Crockpot soups are high on the menu here at Casa del Jasperson. I do most of the work for dinner in the morning and get it out of the way along with the other housework, and then I can write and whine about writing.
Whining aside, writing is going well. I manage two and sometimes three scenes daily, so the NaNoWriMo project is moving forward.
The storms may swirl and rage outside our apartment, but I have tea to keep me warm and the memories of warmer places and gentler breezes to keep me writing.
So, let’s talk about inspiration. Poets know that writing to a pictorial prompt is one of the best ways to kickstart your imagination.
The work inspired by a visual prompt often has nothing to do with the image. But it has everything to do with the nature of storytelling. The ability to explain the world through stories and allegory emerges strongly in artists of all mediums—painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, and dancers.
I’ve been cursed with an over-active imagination and have no trouble visualizing what I want to write. The subliminal prompting of an image is the spark that lights the fire of creativity. Even though I’m not educated as an art historian, I gravitate to the paintings of great artists because they tell a story.
My Fine Art Friday posts came about because I like to share the images I come across. Hopefully, it gives others like me access to view the art that humanity is capable of, good and bad.
Perception is in the eye of the beholder. Observation inspires extrapolation, leading the viewer to come away with new ideas. When I view a scene captured centuries ago by an artist, my mind kicks into high gear. I see the painting as depicting the middle of the story, and I imagine what came before that moment and where it is going next.
Unintentionally, I put a personal spin on my interpretation. I don’t mean to, but everyone does.
One of my favorite prompts is Rhetoricians at a Window, by the brilliant 17th-century Dutch artist Jan Steen. The vivid characters who inhabit the scene inspired the creation of some of the characters who pass through my Billy’s Revenge novels, people my protagonists meet along the way.
These jolly rogues have such vivid personalities that the viewer immediately feels a kinship. Who were they? Did they keep their day jobs? Or were they charming moochers living off the kindness of friends?
The public reading of a poem or play was an opportunity for the performers to party like rock stars. After researching this painting online, I learned that the group’s orator is reading a paper titled Lof Liet (Song of Praise). It is assumed the man who looks over his shoulder is the poet who composed the verse.
Symbolism is front and center in this picture. From the drinker in the shadows of the background to the grapevines growing around the window, Jan Steen tells us that wine and rhetoric are entwined.
I love the inclusion of both “the critic” who leans his head on his hand and listens analytically, and the man behind him, who has drunk a few too many pints and supports himself by grasping the window frame and heartily agreeing with some point.
The actor who reads is clearly enjoying himself, as are the others.
And what other symbolism was incorporated in this painting that art patrons in the 17th century would know but we who view it through 21st-century eyes wouldn’t? Eelko Kappe’s article on this painting, Rhetoricians at the Window by Jan Steen, tells us the characters in this painting represent the different emotions of the human condition:
- Sanguine (active, enthusiastic, and social)
- Choleric (fast, irritable, and short-tempered)
- Melancholic (analytical, quiet, and wise)
- Phlegmatic (peaceful and relaxed)
When I first read that article, I discovered four new words that I’ll never have a use for. But I love words, big or small, old and new—and now I know what sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic mean. While they were familiar and well-understood words when this painting was new, sadly they’re a little too obscure to use in today’s casual prose.
I hate it when I have shiny new words but am not allowed to show off with them.
Finally, as always, whether you are participating in NaNoWriMo or not, may the words flow freely for you, and may you never run out of new ideas to write. If you’re running a little low on inspiration, consider going to Wikimedia Commons and perusing the incredible art that is there for all to enjoy.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Landscape_paintings_by_artist
Credits and Attributions:
IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Jan Steen, Dutch (active Leiden, Haarlem, and The Hague) – Rhetoricians at a Window – Google Art Project.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jan_Steen,_Dutch_(active_Leiden,_Haarlem,_and_The_Hague)_-_Rhetoricians_at_a_Window_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg&oldid=355150081 (accessed September 10, 2020).
Artist: 
Often the work that is inspired by a visual prompt has nothing to do with the image. But it has everything to do with the nature of storytelling. The ability to explain the world through stories and allegory emerges strongly in some people. Many are naturally able to form and express a story, and others find the subliminal prompting of an image will be the spark that lights their creativity.
Picasso’s choice to use black and white to tell that story is brilliant. Newsreels of the day were black and white, which influenced his decision. This piece is powerful because of the emotion the artist painted into the image.
nspiration can be found in the image of an unoccupied park bench in winter. The gray weather, the barren scenery, the loneliness of the empty bench could be the seeds from which a novel grows. Who is that bench waiting for? Who has just left it? Is the story light or dark?
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 
