Henry Varnum Poor, Resident Artist Lecture 1957

Henry Varnum Poor gives a lecture talking about his experiences as an artist and offers words of wisdom to the participants. Poor begins his lecture by stating that in order to be an artist, artists should cultivate a fundamental sense of excitement for his or her relationship to the world. This will allow them to establish a point of view but also remain open minded to the world around them. Poor then states that Skowhegan pedagogically believes in discipline, specifically self discipline. Though there is no imposed outside discipline, every artist who expects to achieve anything must have a tremendous amount of self discipline. Poor tells the participants that they must throw themselves into problems, be able to cope with those problems, and put themselves through necessary routines in order to deal with them. Poor then goes on to describe how art is different from science, stating that science accumulates knowledge which leads to understanding but art is essentially primitive, because art is an expression of each new person who is a part of the world. Artists don’t need to know all the accumulation of data which lies back with them because that denies the whole point of art which is meant to be immediate and personal. Poor states that the accumulation of knowledge which the artist can use is a very slight accumulation of knowledge. Poor also states that art is the opposite of science, because art is not a river which goes towards an end, but a constant tide which rises and falls. Poor further elaborates by saying that the finest works of art come out of the immediate understanding of a person and their relation to the world. Poor then shifts gears and tells the participants that the artists don’t need to worry about freedom because freedom has already been established for them, and artists can carry their freedom with them everywhere they go. This will allow them to develop a steadiness and purpose which lets them go somewhere towards an end. They don’t need to determine what their end already is, but simply have to feel that they are going in a direction that they believe in and work towards that it. Poor ends his lecture saying that imagination in art lies in finding the most complete expression of the existing thing, whether that is the beauty in nature or any other forms they may encounter it in. Once they find these expressions, it will become a part of them and their art.