I have always been interested in the arts - especially theatre and dance. I dedicated over twenty years into moving my own body to music. When working in London, I sometimes went to The National Portrait Gallery. I found the experience surprisingly unmoving. Faces from throughout history stared back at me but had little effect.
When a visit to the cinema in 2003 introduced me to Vermeer, I was entranced by his 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'. If you had asked me then which was a favourite painting, that would have been my response.
A trip to Liverpool in 2015 changed all that. There was a Jackson Pollock exhibition at Tate Liverpool and we went along. At first I wasn't at all sure about modern art. In fact I wasn't sure about Pollock either. That was until I moved into a room dominated by his huge canvas 'Summertime.'
As I looked at the canvas, I was filled with music. It seemed to be dancing - and I began to dance too - right there on the parquet floor of the gallery. A curator saw me and laughed. It was a truly moving experience. The repeating patterns in the painting seemed like choreography. How thrilling to be so affected by an artwork that it makes you dance.
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| Summertime: Number 9A by Jackson Pollock, 1948 |
You used your
to create art.
You danced as
you dripped
and splashed
your energy
onto canvas.
I was still life
until I felt it leap
and suddenly
I danced too
filled with the joy
of Summertime.