Bright Impossibility: On Poets and Painters

Congratulations to CALA faculty, Meera Thompson, on her wonderful solo show at the Atlantic Gallery (548 W 28th St #540, New York, NY 10001). This holiday weekend would be the perfect time to view the work – the show will close on Saturday, May 28! The show’s title Bright Impossibility was inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem.

Meera Thompson describes how Dickinson’s poem inspired her: “I borrowed the title BRIGHT IMPOSSIBILITY for my show from this poignant poem by Emily Dickinson. Because I am a painter, the first stanza piques my curiosity.  Throughout her poetry her descriptions of the sky, sea, and land are so keenly observed and colorful that I am convinced that Dickinson must have had training in drawing and painting and experienced the kinds of deliberations and decisions that attend those processes.

Dickinson characterizes a painting as a “bright impossibility,” and in doing so she reduces a picture to its essential nature.  In two words she lays bare the work of the painter:  to make a tangible object that creates an elusive image in the mind of the viewer.  When we look at a painting and sense the movement of light and shadows in a scene we are seeing an illusion.”

Summer 2022:

Meera Thompson will be teaching The Art of Drawing: From DaVinci to Degas which starts on Monday, July 11, 2022.

I would not paint – a picture –

by Emily Dickinson

I would not paint — a picture —

I’d rather be the One

It’s bright impossibility

To dwell — delicious — on —

And wonder how the fingers feel

Whose rare — celestial — stir —

Evokes so sweet a torment —

Such sumptuous — Despair —        

I would not talk, like Cornets —

I’d rather be the One

Raised softly to the Ceilings —         

And out, and easy on —

Through Villages of Ether —

Myself endued Balloon

By but a lip of Metal —

The pier to my Pontoon —

Nor would I be a Poet —

It’s finer — Own the Ear —

Enamored — impotent — content —

The License to revere,

A privilege so awful

What would the Dower be,

Had I the Art to stun myself

With Bolts — of Melody!