Eugene Ionesco

"I am writing the memoirs of a man who has lost his memory."

— Eugene Ionesco

Romanian/French Playwright

1909 - 1994

If you had no memory, what would your life be like?  Memory is a crucial part of who we are as human beings.  Without memory we probably would not have writing or painting.  Memory helps us create both the past and the future.  Without memory we would not have stories or even history.  Yet for some of us as we grow old our memories begin to fade.  First, we lose that important short-term memory.  Even a trip from the bedroom to the kitchen is full of doubt and question.  The the long-term memory develops holes.  We lose a part of who we were.  Cherish your memories.  Put them down on paper.  Incorporate them into your paintings.  We need our memories in order to function.  We need our memories in order to create.

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John Singer Sargent

Self-Portrait
(1906)

"Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend."

— John Singer Sargent

American Artist

1859 - 1925

Theodore Roosevelt
(1903)

How often have you painted a portrait of a friend and lost his friendship?  Have you ever included a friend in a novel you wrote?  Writers and artists often include their friends in their creative works.  In a novel I wrote, the main character was a composite of two older men that I knew.  Imaginative fiction often has its roots in reality.  Ask any writer who is honest with himself.  Artists need people to sit for them and often these are friends.  Sometimes these friends are not happy with the portrait painted of them, either visually or verbally.

Where do you find the people who sit for your portraits?  Children?  Spouse?  Friends?  Strangers?  Cousins?  Business Partners?  Lovers?  Where do you find the characters in your novels?  Bosses?  Enemies?  Competitors?  Neighbors?  Peers?  Yourself?

Writers are often asked how many of their novels and stories are autobiographical.  And the answer, if given, will very from story to story and character to character?  Readers connected to the author often play the game of guessing who is who.  The bottom-line is that creative leaders make use of their lives to help create their stories and paint their portraits and that is acceptable.

In a world where memoirs have become a dominant art form, the flip side is also true.  Writers often use their imagination to expand and enhance their personal stories to make them more entertaining.  Some have called this lying and unethical.  Others find it acceptable to marry reality and imagination.  What do you think?  

Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood
(1885)

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Pearl Buck

"I have the habit of forgetting what I do not care to remember."

Pearl Buck

American Novelist

1892 - 1973

Memory makes a strange bedfellow.  Have you ever forgotten something you needed to remember?   Or have you remembered something you needed to forget?  Some people can remember the smallest of details.  I tend to forget the details, particularly of place and fashion.    Clothes rarely appear in my conscious mind let alone in my memory.  And if I have been insulted by word or deed, I usually forgive and forget.  My parents and my wife can not understand how I forgot so much of my childhood.  

And yet the strangest of details will find their way into my poems.  Details from somewhere in my past.  The last twenty years have seen an unusual growth in memoirs — both truthful and false.  Yet memory continues to haunt.  Remembering the wrong events can hold you hostage to your past.  What we remember impacts how we behave in the here and now.  Our memory defines who we believe we are.  What memories do you need to forget?  What memories do you need to hold onto?  What memories influence how you behave and help create the person who you have become?  What memories appear in your writing or your art?

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Flannery O'Connor

"Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days."

— Flannery O'Connor

American Novelist

1925 - 1964

Do you remember your childhood?  Some people block out memories of their childhood?  Others have a difficult time forgetting even the most painful memories.  As artists and writers we can mine our past experiences for inspiration for our art.  What events out of your childhood can you use in your stories or your art?  Remember art should transform the actual events into more than just the mere facts like spinning straw into gold.




Here are links to three story poems where I transformed childhood stories and events into more than family history — where I discovered a truth greater than facts.




Mary Lou

http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Mary_Lou.html



Sister

http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Sister.html




Brother Al

http://web.mac.com/hgking/HarleyKing/Brother_Al.html

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Isak Dinesen

"All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them."

— Isak Dinesen

Danish Writer

1885 - 1962

In the last 20 years, the publishing world has sought to give us more and more memoirs —   people sharing their own stories of their sorrow and pain.  They have taken Dinesen's quote to heart.  And there is a lot of truth here.  We all tell our personal story — if not to others, at least to ourselves.  When my wife and I wrote our book on pet loss, we gave voice to the pain that these pet lovers felt.  We allowed them to tell their stories.  What is your story?  What sorrows darken your face?  Have you put it in words?  In pictures?  In music?  Healing comes with the sharing of our stories.

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