Words and Images

I taught a workshop at Synergy this past week on the craft of writing for the art community, hoping to encourage our heavily visual community to share their visions in words as well as images. The important thing to realize is that our words are just as important as our art. Its all communication.

Don’t dismiss the power of words combined with art, even if you don’t want to attempt an article or write a book someday, because just words themselves can have incredible visual impact. The thing is, we are automatically drawn to word–we can’t help but read what is before us–especially when they appear somewhere we don’t really expect to see them, like in jewelry. Erin Prais-Hintz uses words regularly in her work. They enliven the pieces, giving them a whole other layer of  thought and contemplation which would be difficult to get across just with visuals.

What words do you have to share?

By the way, if you would like to share any ideas with the polymer community of how we might craft with words, you are warmly welcome (and highly encouraged!) to send them my way. You don’t have to write to create an article for The Polymer Arts, you just need to have ideas you want to share with the community – things that will push, inspire, challenge and get other artists thinking. You don’t even need to have a clear idea of what to present, because that’s my job–giving each issue of the magazine a particular vision and direction.

Whether you’re using words in your art or writing about art, you have a chance to be heard in a clear and certain voice. Do insist on being heard.