Using Art to Teach Creative Writing

WHAT WORKS FOR ME:Using Paintings for Narrative Building

Asking students to find a detail in a painting creates intrigue and ensures careful looking. The more detailed the picture is, the more interesting the assignment can be. Writing about a detail is also a wonderful way to inspire curiosity. One detail leads to another. This activity is especially helpful as a guide to good writing, because it leads students to start not with a general statement, such as, “There was a model who wore a pearl earring,” but rather to engage the reader with a lead into the story, such as, “The highlight on her earring glimmered in the firelight.” This is a good activity to encourage students to show, not tell. I ask students to choose one detail in a painting and to use that detail to lead the reader into the painting. The sentence about that detail should be as descriptive as possible, but also brief. That takes some word crafting. From that first sentence, the students can
begin to tell the story in the following ways:

• describing the characters or scene
• relating what came before
• depicting what is happening now
• explaining where are we in the story
• creating conversations
• foreshadowing what happens next
  
  Here are some examples written by students in an Elementary Art Education class at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, writing about Julian Dupre’s In the Pasture.
  
  Her feet slipped in her wooden shoes. They were held fast in the
  mud, anchoring the brunt of her pull. The rope slipped in her hands, bringing out fresh blisters. She gave a mighty yank to turn the cow back. It was too busy looking at its comrades to worry about being milked. A dull lowing beckoned in the surrounding pasture, as the cows beckoned to their friend. The rope was taut—the girl’s hands held firm.
  —Jennifer Strait
  
  The cow’s rope had broken. I’d tied her to a post, and when I was halfway to the barn, I heard a snap. Spinning back, catching her as she headed towards the river, I grabbed hard, the frayed end of the rope still tied to her halter. My feet slipping on the muddy earth, I tried to pull her back. She was a lot bigger than me, and determined to get to the river. No one was in sight, just me, stuck here with this stubborn cow.
  —Susanna Roller
  
  Writing from a detail in this fashion teaches an attentiveness to detail and a skill that will help in future writing projects.
  
  Kathy Walsh-Piper, Director
  The Art Museum at the University of Kentucky
  and author of Image to Word: Art and Creative Writing
  
  
  
  

What Works for Me: Using Paintings for Narrative Building, Kathy Walsh-Piper, Teaching English in a Two-Year College, v36.4, May 2009. Copyright © 2009 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved. Posted with permission.

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