In response to the selection of Australian poems on the theme of art and the artist I am going to write about an artist's need to create art. I will attempt to answer the question of why it is so important for an artist to create, incorporating my interpretation of what is creativity.
             A person creates to bring something they feel deep inside them to existence. It is a form of expression. It is a reflection of the creator's state of mind, including their mood and their emotions. And the need to create is a natural force inside that person. A creation is a product of human intelligence, of imaginative thought and artistic ability. To be creative is to be inventive and imaginative and to be a creator, you must create. And to create you must have a sense of wonder. When reflecting on this poetry that relates to creativity the artist is the creator.
             Jennifer Strauss questions the artist's desire to create in "The Red Divan (Francis Gruber 1912-1948)" She wants to know why the artist painted the woman in the painting as he did. Why he created her "collapsed between exhaustion and despair." And what influenced his creation. Strauss constantly questions the painting's composition and subject matter, beginning with "How did the painter understand/ so precisely/ how a woman lies.." Pondering how he managed to "invent the pose", Strauss also questions Gruber's aesthetic qualities. What past experience does the artist have, in order for him to paint the woman "so precisely"? is also on the mind of Strauss as she writes her own personal train of thoughts on "The Red Divan." "did he invent the pose/ for some artist's model/ cold and bored" "Was it Paris he thought of?" Along with expressing her own curiosity in her poem, Strauss gives her own interpretation and response to the creation of the painting, &q
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