My charcoal and watercolor painting is my original interpretation of Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan” that portrays the author’s creative process. The interpretation that was explored in class was a power struggle between the two—the anarchy underneath is seething and wants to break free, but the order above attempts to control nature, forcing it to comply with its orderly state. The two are constantly in a state of conflict, but this artwork introduces a new interpretation—rather than being in conflict, the two are now collaborating. The upper part, usually considered the ordered mind, represents the conscious mind, which is aware of reality and contains our thoughts and memories. The lower part, which represented chaos, now acts as the subconscious mind—the unaware yet automatic mind. The conscious mind must be rational and composed to set up the stage for inspiration to bubble up from the subconscious. The two must work in unison: without the conscious mind, inspiration will be wasted and without the subconscious, inspiration has no grounds from which to rise up. The “caverns measureless to man” symbolize the depths of the imagination—where inspiration stems from—settled deep in the subconscious mind (Coleridge 27). Creativity draws from the entirety of the brain: in order to harness its power, the mind must utilize both the subconscious and the conscious, the right and the left sides of the brain.
To visually represent this, I situated the dome inside Coleridge’s head, effectively equating it to his mind and representing his awareness and imagination. The ornate architecture, spreading beyond the bounds of his mind, is defined by “walls and towers… girdled round” and sharp, sleek lines, reflecting the conscious mind and the ordered dome (Coleridge 7). The middle section represents the flowing water of the “mighty fountain” that was “forced” to erupt (Coleridge 19). In this artwork, the mighty fountain is a representation of creativity—a force that violently bursts out of the subconscious, coming and going as it pleases. The space that represents the subconscious and conscious mind are of the same color—both are gold, which symbolizes not only that they are invaluable, as gold is the most valuable metal, but also that they are equal and cannot work without the other. The portrait of Coleridge is left in its original charcoal state to emphasize the light and shadow that falls across the surface of his face. The shadows symbolize his crippling lack of inspiration and his despair of not being able to hold on to it. The light, which directly contrasts the darkness, represents the precious moments when inspiration abounds and flows endlessly. In his poem, Coleridge mourns the loss of the “symphony and song” of an “Abyssinian maid,” wishing that he could “revive” it within himself. Through an analogy, one can compare the song of the Abyssinian maid to inspiration and his wish to hear it again to his wish to harness inspiration at will (Coleridge 39-43). Inspiration serves as a “miracle of rare device,” where the “sunny pleasure-dome” is full of creative force, bursting uncontrollably, but the “caves of ice” represent the moments where the mind has to be still, patient, and calm, inviting inspiration in (Coleridge 35-36).
One is able to draw connections from this interpretation to William Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a cloud.” In the poem, Wordsworth emphasizes the need to achieve a specific mental space to prime the mind for inspiration. He acknowledges poetry as the overflow of spontaneous emotion, but it is recollected in tranquility. Exercise or engagement with art acts as the priming elements to set the near-meditative “vacant” or “pensive” mood, which is necessary to provide inspiration (Wordsworth 20). Once this is achieved—once inspiration strikes—the mind is ready to welcome creativity with open arms. It seems like Coleridge already knew what neuroscientists took years to learn: it takes the whole brain to harness creativity, not just the right hemisphere, and in order to access it, one must be in a specific mental state for creativity to settle in and flow unrestricted.
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