Meet our special guest for tonight:
Mr. Mike Asukwo is an artist who sketches satire with a smile. His cartoons have been tickling and provoking minds for years, making many angrily happy. As a Nigerian, he has experienced the pains of bad politics and always captures it with his sharp but humour coated pen. He is a graduate of Fine Art from the prestigious Yaba College of Technology where he majored in Sculpture and currently head of Graphics at Business Day Media where he has been churning out his humorous but acerbic cartoons. No one is safe from his barbed humour, as long as it makes a point. Mike is a mentally unrestricted cartoonist who draws the line.
There is a bit of background about me posted here earlier so I don’t think I need to bore you by ‘uploading’ my bio here again.
As an artist I have always loved my works to speak to situations. Whether as designs, paintings, drawings or sculptures, I almost tried to imbue them with a narrative that calls for contemplation.
When my works are taken away from galleries or my studio and into a different space where it loses its significance, I feel that a communication channel has been tampered with. So I try as much as possible that much is not lost in misinterpretation. That the work doesn’t lose its depth.
No other artform gives me that freedom like Cartooning. With Cartooning I could easily avoid ambiguity and arrange the elements in such a way that they speak for themselves. And when they do, I feel reluctant to interrupt.
So today, when Godson asked me to make this presentation, I decided on a genre of poetry that is dear to me.
Ekphrastic poetry
I must say that Godson is one Ekphrastic Poet I know.
As a poet have you ever looked at a painting, sculpture, or photograph and felt like it was speaking to you? Seen an image that moved you? What if you could answer back—not with a brush, but with words? Wanted to give a photo or painting a voice? That’s the magic of ekphrastic poetry -a poem inspired by visual art.
Godson has been doing this since I met him.
Ekphrastic poetry is simply poetry inspired by visual art.
It goes beyond just the description. It adds emotion, imagination and voice to a painting, sculpture or cartoon
To make great Ekphrastic poems you need to have a sharp power of observation.
You need to be able to explore stories within the art by studying the art in detail.
You should be able to express a personal opinion about the work.
In short you need both visual and literary creativity.
There are some ways you could respond to the art:
You could describe the scene.
You could give voice to the characters
You could imagine what happens next or prior. That is, you could imagine the art as a frame taken from a reel. Imagine if you were to animate a cartoon…recreate the missing frames.
You can also reflect on the emotions or message.
In short, you are giving voice to the art
You may also critique or give a personal interpretation of the image.
So in creating this kind of poetry, you are actually conversing with the art. You are speaking to it. You are reacting emotionally to it. Showing anger, joy, curiosity
The artist, most times unconsciously imbues his art with elements, feelings, meanings through the use of symbolism and visual metaphors
The painter uses composition, balance, colour, lines etc. to create mood, feelings, depth etc.
The sculptor uses materials, forms, texture, colour, size to create the desired impact.
The cartoonist uses symbolism, irony, satire, lines, caricature etc. to pass his message.
The Ekphrastic poet takes note of all these, explores, and creates his piece from a position of deep understanding, agreement or disagreement, knowledge etc.
So, to be like Godson, you could use any art as a jumping-off point to spark Creativity, practice observation and connect dots.
One of the most celebrated Ekphrastic poem is Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats. It was inspired by the art on an urn.
In a way…the art piece presents something to unravel, a challenge. The visual artist and the poet share a lot in common especially in the creative process.
Just like the visual artist can get inspired by a word, a song, the poet can also get inspired by an image. The idea is actually to talk back to an art piece that speaks to you.
The ability to immerse your entire creative juices for art to read poetry is Ekphrastic Poetry — Godson Osarenren