Why I am Not a Painter

The painter, inspired by the word sardines uses colors to express it, while the poet, inspired by the color orange, uses words to express it. I love what O'Hara does with this poem-the way he takes a simple trip to visit a painter friend and stretches it to examine a much broader meaning. The painter gets rid of the word "Sardines" because "it was too much", and yet the poet writes a total of twelve poems without even saying the word orange before his project is complete. Both artists are striving for creation, but can only achieve representations, mere symbols, of what they want to create. The artist can no sooner paint real sardines into existence as the poet can write an orange into being. The best they can do is liken color and line and shade to sardines, and compare orange to all things around and related to orange.