Peter Howson: Folding Mirrors Show Balance of Art

Image by pixelsandpaper via Flickr

I was watching a clip from a BBC documentary about Peter Howson, a Scottish artist, when I noticed he used two mirrors (with a folding effect) to check the balance of his painting, saying you could see all the mistakes that way.

I hadn’t noticed it when watching the whole documentary, so that shows how editing and repeated observations can be beneficial.  The whole video is available from the above link in the UK for three days, and the clip might be available to everybody for longer?

It inspired this Folding Mirror poem, which took a lot less time than Howson’s work, and could probably do with more editing.

Art of Humanity

art surface beauty is usually good enough
the mind is built on selection
look inside yourself
but don’t dig too deep

pictures are never perfect

edit a little over time
don’t destroy it
balance isn’t constant over a life
of change not felt on gallery walls

Marc Latham’s Folding Mirror Invention Claim in Crisis!

Marc Latham thought he’d invented the Folding Mirror poetry form in 2007, but new evidence unearthed today in the planetary poetry pond suggests that a folding mirror style was around for a long time before that, although it was unnamed, and specified that the same words should be used in each half of the poem.  So it is slightly different to the form initiated/named by Latham, although it was much closer than Latham had been aware of. 

Robert Lee Brewer Provides Expert Poetry Knowledge

Latham always admitted he was a poetry novice when he thought up his first Folding Mirror poem, after being inspired by the haiku form.  Some poets with more experience and knowledge told him about the palindrome, but the examples Latham saw just had two blocks of text in two halves, so he thought the Folding Mirror was different.

But this morning he got a newsletter from Robert Lee Brewer with his palindrome (mirror) poem that uses a word in the middle to link the two halves.

Palindromes History on Deviant Art

Latham at first thought that this might have been inspired by his Folding Mirror poems, but when he searched palindrome poetry, he found a site with examples of three types of palindrome poetry from 2004, and it said that they were invented by Sotades in 3rd century BC Greece. One of the styles does use a linking word in the middle.

The Future for Folding Mirror Poetry

The big positive out of today’s revelations is a window to lots of great mirror poetry, and hopefully this will increase interest in the mirror form(s)…and this site…?

Article Citing Research Linking Biological and Political Development

Image via Wikipedia

World Science has just published an article featuring research finding that political development has a similar structure to that found in biological systems.  It ties in nicely with the Time Stands Still poem recently published to this site.

It also has an article about butterflies treating their young, which is relevant for the ant theory poetry previously featured on the site.

Thanks to World Science and the researchers for the info, and you for visiting.  Have a great weekend!

Folding Mirror Research Article in April ETips Magazine

Admin’s research into the first seventy-six poems on this site has been published in the April Etips, which is available for free from the Norfolk Poets link to your left if you sign up.

Happy Easter/Holiday!