Art Elicits Emotion: A Connection Made

 “Art elicits emotion. You may not understand it or the connection made,” according to my college art appreciation professor.  I wrote his words down, and I have a better understanding after viewing and sitting with Polly Clark’s oil paintings, which are exhibited in the Theosophical Society Library, located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood behind the Quest Bookshop.

I journeyed down the cement walkway, passing the peaceful bamboo garden adorned with a Buddha head on my right-hand side. 

The library doors were in front of me with a laminated sign posted. It read:

Theosophical Library

Showing Polly Clark’s Fine Oil Paintings

Polly Clark, a longtime Theosophist, expresses the light

as the eternal Source of Life in her paintings.

The use of color in Polly’s paintings spoke to me through light, energy, renewal and healing. It was restorative.

There was a tattered sketch book page that was marked “free.” Nancy, who is the librarian, offered the drawing of Mount Rainier. I gladly accepted. I hung it on the side of my refrigerator nearest to my microwave and stove with a magnet from my hometown proudly touting, “Fort Wayne, Indiana”

I turned groggily towards the picture early one morning as I cooked breakfast.  Polly’s work resonated and a memory surfaced of when I told my mother I no longer wanted to be a Girl Scout after beginning as a Brownie and now reaching senior scout status. She said that I needed to choose another activity. I selected 4-H.

I donned a full length plaster cast on my right leg during the summer, leading into my senior year of high school. An activity with limited mobility was necessary. I opted for art in the 4-H Fair. I drew with color pencils a picture of a mountain. I had never been to a mountain before depicting it. I had only seen one in a magazine being from the farmlands. I submitted my work, and I earned a first place to my surprise.

I made a connection through Polly’s art without ever meeting her. I understood in that moment I was brought to the mountain, and art elicits emotion.