By Norma Hopcraft
Writers are artists of words, images, ideas, moods.
Painters are artists of images and feeling.
Musicians are artists of notes and feeling.
Architects are artists of light and space and feeling.
The best architects, like the other artists, help us to feel affirmed in our humanity.
I’m crazy about historic commercial architecture, which you’ll find plenty of in Providence, RI (pics below). I like it because these buildings were built to be, and still are, places where people sit in light and space, which architects skillfully divided, and work to make their dreams come true.
Providence itself is a city of light, space, and air. It's rich in historic commercial architecture and water views. It’s on huge Narragansett Bay, and the Providence and Woonasquatucket rivers flow through it. There’s always a breeze.
Let me digress quickly to Rochester, NY, where I live now in an apartment full of light, air, and nicely proportioned space. It’s in a 100-year-old building, so I dub it historic.
There’s always a breeze in this city, too, so near a humungous lake—Ontario. So when I open my south- and east-facing windows, a breeze barrels through, so much so that my little living space feels fresh, like standing on the deck of a boat. I like that. I grew up on a small sailboat, so the breeze ignites memories. As much as weather permits, my windows are open. It's mid-October and they're still open, even in Rochester.
This is where I’m now pursuing my writerly American dreams, after a difficult four years in Brooklyn. You would think, “New York City: a creative person’s paradise,” but in the immense city, with teeming millions of strangers full of near-maniacal energy, I got very disconnected, very lonely, no matter how many friends I called.
Now, I’m near family, making new friends, and working on my memoir (unfortunately, I have a memoir-worthy life). I’m also fiddling with a novel set in – no, not Rochester, but Brooklyn. It's about a theater set designer, a person flourishing in NYC, though struggling with directors and actors and costume designers in the theater world.
Recently I had an artistic breakthrough in my writing in Rochester that I’d like to offer you, because it will probably help you. To do so, I’ll tell a story of failure—mine.
For most of my writing career, I’ve sent pieces to literary magazine editors that I revised, rehashed, and refined to within an inch of the piece’s life. After 25 years of rejection slips (Stephen King and his spike filled with rejections have nothing on me), I stopped submitting work to create time to self-publish three novels. They’ve gotten good reviews but they haven’t broken through. A crushing of my American Dream of financial success from my books.
Recently I saw a segment on the PBS Newshour about black women trying to break through in the country music world. White female singers have long complained that they get much less airtime than white male musicians. Can you imagine how much harder it is for a black woman, especially in a Southern-rooted genre?
The reporter interviewed several black female artists. One of them said a life-changing thing for me. Brittney Spencer happens to be breaking through quite well, and she said:
“I no longer ask if it’s good enough, I ask if it’s me enough.”
So I’m no longer asking is this novel/memoir/poem/blog post “good enough”, but is it “me” enough? Have I infused it with the wry humor that I love to read myself? Does this piece express the emotional truth I experienced in that situation?
It gives me light and space to let a piece breathe. A beautiful breeze off Lake Ontario that was born in the Canadian wilderness can now pour through the windows. Maybe it will mean acceptance from those meanies, the literary editors.
I don’t know what wry humor would look like in architecture, but I do know whimsy, and you’ll find it amongst the pics of Providence below.
If and when you begin travelling again, consider Providence as a destination for creative inspiration. The historic commercial architecture will lift your spirits.
Plus Providence is a foodie town, with Johnson & Wales culinary school and tons of restaurants and cafes. Rhode Island ocean beaches are only ½-hour away in Newport, and you can tour the mansions of incredibly wealth Americans, if you’re into that sort of thing (i.e., seeing how other people’s American Dream came fabulously true.) You must guarantee me that you won’t compare and despair, an activity that derails me often.
On top of all those goodies in Providence, you can take a boat ride—in a gondola, no less!
Providence light and space, in the form of architecture, gondolas, and bridges, are shown to you below. How about you? Does Brittney Spencer’s words help you in art or life? Comment below!
