Ekphrasis

Using Fine Arts to teach Creative Writing

Kitiya Le Huu
Teaching Composition
Fall 2006
University of Virginia
Kitiya Le Huu
Teaching Writing Composition
Fall 2006
Ekphrasis: Using Fine Arts to teach Creative Writing

Initially, I had been interested in researching writing prompts that would do two things: (1) I

wanted prompts that would not be confined to the act of writing; and (2) I wanted prompts that would

provide students with more guidance in the writing process itself. Traditionally, prompts that are used

to give students an access point to begin writing do not address the actual techniques or strategies to be

used in the writing process itself. There are so many layers to writing; careful scaffolding is needed to

create opportunities for the exploration and practice of specific skills. Instead of having the process

remain visible but murky, scaffolding may help clear the waters.

Until I stumbled on Kathleen Walsh-Piper’s Image to Word: Art and Creative Writing, I had

not even considered art as a means of making writing more accessible and interesting. Although

Walsh-Piper conceived of her strategies for writing from the perspective of art education, many of her

ideas are applicable and adaptable to the practice of teaching composition. In fact, I agree with the

author that writing that is done at a museum “by its very nature it teaches attention and reflection, with

the concept of looking as a separate activity” (p. xxvii). This seemed to be in alignment with the

strategies we have discussed in our classes—that prior to interpreting, we must first practice the

process of describing, stating what can be observed.

Many readers get their start with picture books in the early years. Updike observes in Just

Looking that “the illustrator of children’s books surpasses all other artists in the impressionability of

his audience; what touches will produce an indelible effect is beyond calculation, no doubt, the

receiving surface of a child’s psyche being so soft and mysteriously laden and momentous with its raw

energy” (p. xxv). Why then, does this form of literature become unacceptable for developing readers

and so readily abandoned? At a certain age, illustrations, pictures, artwork seem to have been banished

from many of the texts that students are encouraged to read. Does this create obstacles when the time

comes for students to navigate between the roles of reader versus that of author? Walsh-Piper, in her
 Le Huu 3
introduction, claims that “Writing about art works best when done spontaneously in museum galleries

because real works of art have a presence, a power to act as a catalyst for ideas and emotions…the

actual experience resides in the object” (p. xxvii). How can we teach students to access their

experiences as readers and observers in order to become better writers? How can we teach students to

“show, don’t tell?” In looking for inventive and nontraditional activities that can be used as writing

prompts, I decided to start my search by examining the relationship between exploring images and

exploring words, in hopes of creating a structured approach to teaching writing via visual arts.

In designing what would hopefully become a streamlined plan ready for implementation, I

needed to restructure some of Walsh-Piper’s strategies and approaches. Because she had written this

book based on her profession as a museum curator, I would have to be selective in terms of the

strategies I choose and be careful to structure them along a trajectory that would work for writing class.

I would also have to invent an activity or two of my own in order to bridge any technical or conceptual

gaps, because Walsh-Piper’s strategies have been proposed in the absence of any academic contexts.

Research

My research process, while enlightening, unfortunately did not yield much by way of

information that I could use for this particular project. Ekphrastic writing is typically used to teach art

classes; any data, research, or successful practices I could find were targeted at post-secondary

educators. Because these articles actually focused on art and not writing, most of the strategies

discussed or modeled involved poetry, which would be too limiting. Many of the articles assumed a

student’s writing ability to be at the college-level, making the proposed strategies difficult to adapt for

use in the high school classroom.

I did, however, discover that the connection between writing and art is commonly exploited by

educators and museums alike; if I were to implement these strategies in my own classroom, there

would be an abundance of resources and opportunities to reach out to the community (depending on

locale). For the time being, though, I chose to focus only on Walsh-Piper’s text because it was rich
 Le Huu 4
with strategies, student examples, works of art, and it specifically discussed writing techniques in

relation to interpreting works of art. By gleaning ideas, strategies, and exercises from her experiences,

I have created a mini-curriculum based on the ekphrastic approach.

I. Pre-Writing
My take on the ekphrastic writing process begins with the pre-writing stage. Typically, this

would involve students brainstorming, clustering, or free-writing—that is, jumping right into the

writing process without ceremony. However, I wanted to take students back out to a place where they

would begin by being observers, by only thinking about what they observe, and most importantly, by

learning ways to communicate what they observe. The first activity I titled “Name the Work of Art.”

Upon being randomly assigned a piece of art, the activity will unfold as follows:
(1) Have students assign a name to the piece of art, without being given any background
information or historical context;

(2) Next, going in a circle, students throw out their “names,” keeping the pace moving so
that they get comfortable—keep going until the names start to demonstrate some
degree of relevance to the art piece itself;

(3) Starting with any piece, have students brainstorm as many names listed for that
painting as they can recall;
(4) Discuss with students these questions: What do you notice about the names? How do
they relate to the art? What helped you recall the names?
(5) Repeat for each piece of art. (From Walsh-Piper’s Image to Word)

The objective of the activity is to have students begin to identify the different elements of the painting

which may have inspired someone give it a particular name and to also demonstrate to students the

wide range of possible perspectives and viewpoints that are available to them.

The follow-up activity (which I created based on the first and third activities) is called “What’s

in a Name?” This activity gives students the opportunity to practice their newfound observation skills

and engage in discussions centered on word choice. Students will explore choices that must be made in

order to accurately represent an image through using words. Three to four art pieces will be assigned

to students in groups of two to three, making sure other groups do not see which pieces are assigned to

which groups. Students will follow these steps:

 Le Huu 5
(1) Name all their assigned pieces (no background information/historical context—students are
expected to engage in a discussion and debate in order to collectively arrive at a
consensus;

(2) Groups will trade pieces with each other; each group is to try and match the names
with the correct piece of art and also discuss and note down why they think their
choices are correct;

(3) Put the “switched up” groups together for a concluding discussion to reveal answers,
and possibly debate the choices that were made in naming the various works of art;

(4) Have a class discussion on the different elements/aspects of works of art that may
lead to them being given a certain name, why certain choices were made, and what
kinds of things can be revealed in just a few words.

The previous activity was created as a bridge between the first and this next activity, which I

call “Word Pictures.” In this activity, students will put their observation skills to use and begin

crafting messages that describe a work of art:

(1) Ask students, in pairs, to select a piece of art they’re interested in;

(2) Have students look at the art piece for a minute; then have them turn around, and,
without looking at the picture, individually write down as many things that they
observed as possible;

(3) Looking at the art piece again, each student then develops a description of the piece
of art based on what they observed;

(4) Students share descriptions, comparing viewpoints and observations with partner;

(5) Class discussion; teacher points out different types of responses in order to
emphasize many ways of seeing and importance of collaborating to learn other
viewpoints and other ways of seeing and communicating what is observed.

For this particular activity, it would be most effective if the selection of paintings consists of works

that depict a scene (as opposed to landscape

or portrait, which can be limited in terms of

observable activities or characters). The

example used in the text is John Greenwood’s

1.0 Greenwood, John, Sea Captains Carousing at Surinam

Sea Captains Carousing at Surinam.

Teachers should also use this opportunity to determine the different categories of perspectives and

make these categories explicit to students through class discussion. Here are some examples provided
 Le Huu 6
by Walsh-Piper (I don’t believe the types of observations should or can be limited to those provided):

Description/Observation Type/Nature of Observation

People are drinking and having a party.
Triangles and vertical lines.
A man petting a dog, men dancing, a man getting sick.
There are three groups of people, or there are twenty-
three people, twelve chairs, two tables.
There are men in tricorn hats from the eighteenth century
and native servants.
Observer sees big picture.
Observer sees shapes and composition.
Observer sees people and interaction or sees story details.
Observer sees numerical relations.
Observer sees historical aspect.

The main objective of the pre-writing strategies I’ve outlined is to cultivate the skills to call on words

and ideas in response to visual stimuli; being able to do so takes students a step closer to creating

works of writing in response to other, less concrete, prompts.

II. Building a Vivid, More Specific Vocabulary

Prior to embarking on the writing process, students must be given the tools with which to

create pieces of writing—words, words, words, and the skills needed to manipulate words. This strand

of teaching through ekphrasis consists of quite a few components. The first focuses on equipping

students with (and activating) vocabulary to express sound and movement. Initially, I tried to do a

cluster activity, listing as many words as I could that would portray the sound or movement in a

painting I had chosen. It was surprisingly difficult!

I then decided that for high school students, I’d need to create a prompt that scaffolds better

than clustering. This activity I call “Does a Cow Moo?” Students, working in pairs, choose a painting

(from a selection provided by the teacher); picking out as many visual elements as they can, they must

try to match each with either a sound or movement word with which it can be associated. The words

can be made-up, as long as they dutifully represent the sound or movement as claimed. (I do not

expect that students will have enormous lists; in fact, I expect that each pair may only have about six

or seven pairs of words.) However, in providing different types of paintings, students will learn other

sound or movement words from their classmates when the class reports their findings and share their

lists of words. Here’s an example of what I did:

 Le Huu 7

My version of the exercise is Waterfall: rush, push, roar,

not that different from the one
Walsh-Piper describes. By
picking out specific graphic
elements the process became
more explicit. I found it easier
to come up with sound and
tumble, splash, gush, burst
Breeze: blow, whisper,
breathe, whoosh, swish,
echo, lift, swirl, gust
Trees: hum, murmur,
whistle, bend, wave, sway,
dance, bow, point, stand
Clouds: drift, glide, float,
stretch, yawn, laze, expand
Mountains: rise, hover,
surround, encircle
1.1 van Ruisdael, Jacob, Wooded_Landscape with Waterfall

movement words when the process was anchored to specific visual elements in the painting.

Therefore, with high school students, it is very important that whatever strategies are used, they must

always be visually connected to the painting.

The second strand of building a more vivid vocabulary involves getting students to develop an

awareness of and use adjectives that describe textures. Here are the steps described by Walsh-Piper:

(1) Ask students (in pairs) to choose an object from the bag without looking at it
themselves, and not to show it to their partner;
(2) Without looking at the object, they should feel it and think of words to describe its
texture (e.g. “My object is soft and almost like fur, with little bristly fibers going in
one direction” –description for a piece of imitation leopard-skin fabric);
(3) Then the students should each select an object in the painting with a similar texture
and try to describe its textures to their partners using adjectives (e.g. “The cut-velvet
dress of the lady in the portrait has a texture that is soft, plush, deep, inviting,
velvety.”);
(4) Then each pair reports to the class their textured object, painting, and texture
adjectives for both.

I found the previous activity interesting Here’s my response to that

prompt:

and enjoyable, putting my senses to My object is smooth, hard,

cool to the touch, hollow,
good use in ways that tend to be cylindrical, with a plasticky
surface.

unconventional in the classroom. I think (empty Nalgene bottle)

The walls of the blue room

that initially, students may find it have a texture that is cool,
hard, flat, and smooth.
difficult to release their senses and truly

explore. With practice, however, I think 1.2 Barney, Matthew, Drawing Restraint 7
 Le Huu 7
that students will come to enjoy the activity, because the academic environment frequently forces us

to stifle our senses that are not involved in listening, reading, writing, or responding to the

predetermined stimuli set forth by teachers and the curriculum.

The next section of the process involves putting the first two sets of skills together, in an

activity intended to help students use their adjectives with more precision and specificity, appealing to

as many senses as possible. Here’s my response based on a painting provided with the book:

Lemons: citrus, sharp, While this is a great activity for

refreshing, tart, stinging,
puckering, mouth-watering,
encouraging students to start
sun-burst yellow, clean

Leaves: fresh, grassy, identifying and categorizing their

green, mossy, waxy, crispy

Pomegranate seeds:
descriptive language in order to
crunchy, sweet, juicy,
rubbery, pink-flavored, semantically map them for future
floral-tasting
use, I found myself wanting to

1.3 van Hulsdonck, Jacob, Still Life with Lemons, link this activity with the last one.
oranges, and Pomegranate

That is, I found myself wishing

that I were holding a freshly cut lemon wedge up to my nose or having a pomegranate seed burst open

on my tongue. I think that if I were to use this activity with high school students, I might make the

experience even more vivid and appealing by bringing in the actual items and having students really

“feel” them. I used to work at a restaurant, so I found it easy to access the sensory words around food,

whereas high school students, lacking the experience and vocabulary, may not find this task as

accessible. Areas like these would be where the teacher has to be adaptable by creating additional

activities or extending existing activities in order to provide whatever scaffolding is necessary for

students to build their vocabulary.

When students are relatively comfortable with throwing around adjectives and are able to use

them more purposefully, the next activity will allow them to play with these sensory words. “Word

Pairs” is based on artwork that uses colors expressively. Students are first asked to create word pairs,
 Le Huu 9
then longer phrases by pairing words that express verbal images with those that express visual images:

(1) Students select artwork (from a large selection provided by teacher);

(2) The strongest color in the painting must first be identified. The teacher can either
choose to scaffold closely by having individual conferences with students to make
sure they are on the right track; alternately, going through and erroneously choosing
the wrong colors can also be an effective learning process.
(3) As a class, discuss the description of colors , using a model painting; if it’s blue,
what kinds of green are there? Try to have students be as specific and vivid as
possible. For example, there’s spring green, moldy green, murky green, or olive
green.
(4) Have students try their hand at word pairings by using their own paintings. (Word
lists can be provided as examples and/or guides.) When finished, class shares ideas.
(5) Finally, have students go back into their paintings, armed with other students’ ideas
and images. Students will pick out as many colors as possible and create word pairs
for each color. As a follow up activity, display the paintings, read out the attached
list of word pairs, and ask students to guess which painting the list refers to.

Here are some of my own word pairs based on the painting from the last response:

Yellow: sun-burst yellow, The teacher should explicitly

lemon curd yellow, canary
yellow, sandy yellow,
discuss with students the functions
bright yellow, electric
yellow,
of the word pairs in merging
Green: grassy green, pale
green, smooth green, waxy verbal images with visual images.
green, spring green, virgin
green, peridot green
Students should also understand
Red: blood orange red,
ruby red, dim red, faded that there is a certain degree of
red, dried-blood red

1.3 van Hulsdonck, Jacob, Still Life with Lemons, poetic license; as long as the word
oranges, and Pomegranate

pairs make sense in the context of

their paintings, they can be as creative as they want. Allowing this element of freedom may help

release students from thinking about images conventionally; hopefully it may also elicit more

adventurous ways of observing and communicating these observations.

The next step involves moving beyond colors and textures. In the “Thinking in Phases”

activity, students are asked to create word pairs again, except this time the images should describe the

painting by incorporating word pairs using sound and movement words as well as those depicting

colors and textures. For example, with the waterfall painting: roaring waters; foamy white; dancing

breeze; and rolling clouds are a few word pairs that describe the painting. Once students have created
 Le Huu 10
a working list of word pairs, they will start to craft a paragraph around these sensory images in order

to describe the painting by bringing it to life through vivid imagery.

To bring all the skills and newly acquired vocabulary together, the final activity incorporates

figurative language—metaphors and similes. Using poetry prompts, students call on word pairs,

sensory adjectives and verbs, creating a poem that would function as a metaphor for the painting.

Here are the steps, with my responses to the poetry prompt; the first example is an initial attempt,

without having gone through any of the exercises from the first four steps of the vocabulary building

section. The second is a

continuation of the previous saccharine romance

convening by spring flowers

vocabulary exercises, using the
and a well-timed sunset

fruit bowl painting. It is like the genetically modified

rose bush that is perfectly
without thorns
relatively clear that the
man-made beauty
vocabulary exercises have

helped in refining the words I

1.4 Bellows, George, Tennis at Sunset

Prompt Structure My Response

Line 1: Name the painting. Line 1: Thirst Quencher
Line 2: Write an action phrase, Line 2: Perched and piled in a
based on something mound of freshness
observable.
Line 3: Create a simile for the Line 3: Like the promise of
painting. spring’s return
Line 4: Give the painting Line 4: Puckering Tartness
another short name.

1.3 van Hulsdonck, Jacob, Still Life with Lemons,

oranges, and Pomegranate

chose to use, resulting in verbal images that were more specific and faithful in depicting the artwork.

In my initial attempt, the resulting poem was vague, pretentious, and not as effective in portraying the

painting truthfully. Surprisingly, even though the guidelines for the topic, as well as the confines
 Le Huu 11
within which I would craft the words for my poem seemed limiting, these restrictions actually

improved my ability to interpret the painting in more thoughtful and interesting ways. Similarly to the

process of describing we undertook when we practiced responding to our peers’ papers, here the

activity also only focused on the observable. Students will be required to invent new ways of

expressing what is observed in the painting by accessing the words furnished by previous exercises.

III. Applications of Skills by Exploring Elements of Writing

Free-writing may be a strategy intended to help writers find a beginning, flesh out an idea for a

piece of writing, or even used as a rough draft. Without a vocabulary and the skills to call on said

vocabulary, however, students may not find the free-write that helpful. Staring at a blank piece of

paper is hardly productive. Getting students to write more, write freely, and write without barriers is

difficult. While the physical act of writing is observable, the acts of creating ideas, manipulating words,

and calling on images are fleeting and harder to capture. Despite these difficulties many novice writers

have, it is still important that teachers continue to provide opportunities for students to free-write

throughout the implementation of pre-writing and vocabulary building exercises. These opportunities

allow students to experiment with the new vocabulary and skills they are learning; it may help students

organically develop an awareness of the different ways to manipulate these new words and images.

The following strategies and exercises are structured prompts that require the application of writing

skills and vocabulary students have learned.

i. Visualizing Setting

“The I remember poem.” This poem asks that students create a free verse based on a landscape

they can recall from memory; this landscape can be a location they have visited in person or one they

recall from books, movies, television, or even a piece of art. The teacher should provide questions and

prompts to guide students in recalling and verbalizing these images from memory. Students should be

guided to recall as many sensory details as they can. Ask that where and when possible, students use

the word strategies and observation skills learned in previous activities. What elements of the
 Le Huu 12
landscape are memorable? Stood out the most? Can sound, movement, smell, color, texture words

be used to describe any of these landscape elements? The following is my own response:

I remember your sticky skin

calming winds
powder-fine grains of sun-kissed sand warming our toes
dancing fronds on swaying palms
salty spray and chapped lips
swaths of blues—
cornflower, teal, and Nina Simone
skipping stones
pure white puffs riding low
buried in sand
suspended in bright blue
hideout
1.5 Unknown, Photograph of Railay Beach,
Krabi, Thailand

I intentionally limited my response to mostly word pairs; although I have decided to exclude strategies

that teach rhythm and tone from my research project, I wanted to incidentally explore how using word

pairs for the majority of a poem would affect the way it reads. I ended up going back and altering

some of the lines, making them longer, because the rhythm had become too monotonous—the staccato

achieved by the word pairs seemed chafing, irritating. I initially wrote the poem from memory; upon

finishing it, I found a photograph of the very beach I had been picturing when I was writing that poem.

The word pair exercises—colors, sound, movement—all helped me bring to life my image of the

beach I had visited years ago. I noticed, however, that I did take some liberties; instead of sticking to

one snapshot, I decided to describe a vignette of my time at that beach. I incorporated details like

“salty skin,” “chapped lips,” “skipping stones,” “buried in sand,” and “suspended in bright blue” to

describe the things I remembered doing while at that beach.

I took an interesting step towards the end of the poem. I didn’t know (as usual) how to actually

end it, so I instinctively went back to the poetry prompt from earlier and decided to name the

photograph I had in my head. This instinctive application of a strategy I learned earlier made me

realize that the same strategies could prove useful for students as well. It highlighted the importance of

being explicit when teaching these strategies; in fact, I would probably have students compile a binder

where they can store copies of various activities that they can then use in the future when they get
 Le Huu 13
stuck anywhere in the writing process.

The process of visualizing setting can also be used with abstract paintings. The activity builds

on the word pair exercises that explore colors, textures, sounds, and movement using word pairs.

Walsh-Piper suggests asking students “to imagine themselves in the landscape, with its sights, sounds,

smells, temperature, and atmosphere” then “to write a description of the landscape” (43). With

students who might not be as comfortable working in the abstract, however, I think this activity would

be difficult. Instead, I would provide some scaffolding by asking students to work in pairs, first listing

as many things from the physical realm as possible. After students have shared their lists of physical

objects elicited by the colors and textures of the abstract painting, I would then take them into the

more abstract realm and ask them to think of any experiences that could be triggered or represented by

a certain color. Only when students can to relate the visual elements of the painting to their

experiences would I segue into more abstract thinking and writing.

ii. Creating Characters

“To write a good story, the writer must create a believable character,” (50) Walsh-Piper writes.

She suggests that the writer must be able to bring the character to life through using dialogue and

descriptive language, the same way an artist renders a portrait by “[capturing] a spark of personality

and [showing] us a believable person” instead of simply having a portrait that “tell[s] us how a person

looks” (50). This section of the writing process I found to be difficult, as it requires the synthesis of all

the skills I’ve learned so far. Here is my own character sketch based on a portrait:

The resigned mother posed for what was to become her son’s masterpiece. She
could never say no to her beloved children. Today would be no exception. It had
taken him over a month to complete the painting. Although she had had a long day,
she would do anything for her children. And this she could afford to give him. And
so it was, the woman who had had her share of sorrow and seen a life plagued with
loss and troubles sat demurely, without movement, without affectation, waiting for
the artist to put the blush in her weathered cheeks and the cracks in wall.

1.6 Whistler, James McNeill, Portrait of

Artist’s Mother
 Le Huu 14
` I initially found that creating a story for a character from scratch to be difficult—there were

too many possibilities, ideas, and directions. I finally decided that I would incorporate what I knew

about the painting itself in creating a story for this character. I had planned on approaching this piece

of writing using the same method as the other exercises—without consideration of background

information or the historical context of the painting and artist. However, this proved difficult, because

I felt that I needed the guidance which being given a context would have provided. Therefore, when

using this particular activity with students, I would provide an added option of using the contextual

information about the painting—the artist, the subject, the stylistic period—as entry points to finding

the story behind the subject of the portrait.

Once students feel comfortable with exploring portraits to create stories and characterization,

the class can move into the more complex process of creating dialogues and conversations. This

process involves a laundry list of concepts and skills, from using vivid words to visualizing setting and

creating characters; students will begin to put the different elements of a story together. A good

approach may be to turn this into a project. Once students have selected a painting which they will be

using to create their conversation, take them back to the beginning stages of the writing process. By

revisiting the earlier exercises, students will get the opportunity to practice those skills and equip

themselves with the words, images, and analyses that they may be able to use in their final product.

With this activity, it is crucial that the teacher provide a selection of paintings with enough

interest in them to make the process more accessible. If the painting doesn’t provide much room for

students to play with story ideas and perspective, creating a piece of writing for the piece could

become that much harder. The painting should also not be so specific that students feel constrained by

the visual elements; an open-ended painting would leave more room for interpretation. To use portraits

as an example, creating a character sketch for the Mona Lisa would probably be easier than having to

do one for Rembrandt’s portrait of some lady, who just seems to sit there, poised prettily, but without

much expression in the eyes or face.

 Le Huu 15
For my response to this particular prompt, I decided to use an ambiguous painting—the

visual equivalent of prompts ending in ellipses.

“Why is it taking so long?”

Cathy nudged her husband. Harold was dressed
impeccably today in a deep royal blue suit, auburn
hair perfectly coiffed in the stiff mannequin-like style
that was all the rage. He had not been paying much
attention and had instead been sneaking furtive looks
at the mysterious woman to his right, her face hidden
by the light gold straw hat. Every now and then a
warm gust of gentle summer wind would cause her
coral red muslin scarf to dance, fluttering about her
wrinkled neck, inches from his jacket sleeve.
Cathy puffed impatiently.
“Are you listening to me, Harold?” Harold sighed.
1.7 Hopper, Edward, People in the Sun

She would be unbearable today. But he had to bite his tongue, if things were to go according to plan. Pasting a gentle smile
on his face, Harold turned to look at his wife. She looked better than usual today, her neat blond hair framing her face,
almost successfully hiding her hairy mole. They made a handsome couple; he knew that. But it didn’t make living with her
any easier.
“What is it, darling?”
“I’m getting bored of this. Can we just go? I promised the girls that we’d go shopping today.” She pouted. She had always
thought pouting made her more alluring, not realizing that instead it made her already prominent mole wrinkle angrily,
those two strands of dull blond hair twitching unnaturally in their uncomfortable home.
Harold winced, laboring to keep his nose from wrinkling and eyes from squinting in disgust at the sight of that wretched
mole. Just a few more hours.
“But darling, we’ve already promised to stay until the end. Besides, it’s only nine o’clock. The stores aren’t even open
anyway. What’s the hurry? Let’s enjoy the sun; just sit back and relax, you’ll love it, just wait and see.”
Cathy, unable to retort, sat back, momentarily stumped. Why did he always have to be so logical? It was driving her crazy,
Harold’s tepid, condescending demeanor. Not to mention his dull black shoes, the constant twitching of his brittle
mustache, his waxy, immovable hair. Which was why Cathy had to find a way to convince him to leave as soon as possible.
She had many details to attend to, if things were to go according to plan tonight. Just a few more hours.

The painting I had chosen does not have a definitive story, or even a clearly defined action.

The four characters in the front row may be watching something; on the other hand, they could also be

enjoying the view in general, sitting outside to catch some sun for no particular reason. The man

reading in the back row is either not as invested in whatever everyone else is watching, or he could

also just be sitting out, reading the latest best-seller while enjoying the warmth of the sun as well. Are

they jetsetters? The woman in the hat and red scarf could be one. They could also all be professionals,
 Le Huu 16
taking a much-needed vacation at a mountain resort. What are they watching? They could be at a

small airport, waiting for their private jet to whisk them to some exotic location. They could also be

VIPs at an exhibition of some sort, waiting for the show to begin, while lounging from their first class

vantage point.

I decided not to focus on what the characters seem to be watching, nor did I want to discuss

where they are. Instead, I selected the two least prominent characters in the painting, and made them

my main characters. Exploiting the open-endedness of the painting, I decided that they would all be

waiting for something, using this situation to stir up some tension. I then created a separate instance of

tension between the two main characters, through the use of both dialogue and character monologues

from the perspective of an omniscient narrator. Finally, as a third layer of tension, I created the

beginning of what appears to be two clandestine plots that both husband and wife have planned for

each other. The whispered exchange between the two to aims to create a feeling of distrust and intense

dislike—just enough to cause the reader to doubt that, whatever each has planned for the other, it

could not be good.

I had not written a dialogue in a long time; my last attempt had been for a seventh grade

writing class. Perhaps I had been immersed in writing this paper for so many days now that I find it

easier to access writing in general. It could also be because I have been practicing the vocabulary

building exercises myself. Mostly though, I think that having something concrete to look at, to refer to,

makes it easier to focus on the story element. I’ve come to realize that when I try to create a story, I

start by visualizing an image of some sort. By implementing this writing exercise and anchoring it to a

painting, the process has become grounded. While I don’t have a well-formed plot at the moment, the

next step would be to take the conversation further, allowing the opportunity for a plot of some kind to

begin unfolding. In my response, the meat of the plot would begin with whether or not the two decide

to stay. If I had continued to develop the dialogue, I would probably have ended up with the beginning

of what promises to be a thrilling plot.

 Le Huu 17
I’m not sure whether or not students will find the use of a painting helpful in creating a

dialogue or story. I can see how some may consider the specificity of the painting limiting (i.e., that

the characters look a certain way or seem to be in the middle of a predetermined action). However, for

students who are not at ease with creating characters and a story from thin air, I think that using a

painting will provide a helpful scaffold. Having said that though, even for students who are reluctant

to be confined to the visual images of a painting, being required to work with a set of parameters may

offer a learning opportunity where they can focus on their writing instead of the story itself. By

working with the visual requirements of a painting, students who are more advanced storytellers can

sharpen their writing skills by focusing on making the language even more vivid and precise.

Point of View

Walsh-Piper advocates using an artist’s treatment of subject as a way to identify the point of

view of the artist. She uses two different paintings of a rainy day as an example. One depicts a street

scene, with people walking around, carrying their umbrellas, going about their business along a city

street. The other captures a canal, with trees lined in the background, raindrops making gentle ripples

on the surface of the water. Walsh-Piper states that the artist of the second picture, “by focusing on the

raindrops falling on water, without what art historians call the ‘narrative content’ of showing people

walking down the street, he puts us in his place in a very personal moment” (43-44). The other artist,

despite his accurate rendering of a city street on a rainy day, has created a painting that is more

objective than the first. A parallel could be drawn comparing news articles and editorials. A news

article faithfully includes all the required elements of a story, while the editorial has more freedom in

terms of what it chooses to focus on. The painting of a rainy day by a canal contains no human

subjects, no activity, no real story; instead, the artist has chosen to capture a singular moment, inviting

his audience into that moment where he is watching the rain fall quietly. While this is all very

interesting, I decided that it was far too complex to be used formally in a writing class. Instead, I

would perhaps use these concepts as part of a class discussion, drawing parallels to styles of writing
 Le Huu 18
that can also be observed in literature.

Initially, I had decided to only discuss point of view in my research project within the scope of

Walsh-Piper’s examples. However, upon finally identifying the names of two artists whose works had

been part of an exhibition created to compare their painting styles and subject treatment, I changed my

mind, wishing to exploit this newfound niche for the purposes of exploring point of view. In an

exhibition titled “Cézanne and Pissarro: Seeing Through Paint” at the Museum of Modern Art

(MOMA) in New York City, selected works by Paul Cézanne and Camille Pissarro were paired,

revealing the similarities and differences between the styles of the two artists. Because they had been

contemporaries and close personal friends, they often were inspired by similar subjects. For example,

in the two paintings I chose below, the two artists had painted the exact same scene. However, upon

closer inspection, it becomes apparent that there are subtle differences in their treatment of the subjects

and landscape of the scene.

1.8 Pissarro, Camille, Louveciennes 1.9 Cézanne, Paul, Louveciennes

If I were to use these two paintings in a class discussion on point of view, I would begin by

asking students, in small groups, to list as many differences and similarities as they can. Students

would be asked to observe certain visual characteristics, such as colors, textures, and details included

or excluded. By reflecting on the impression created by each of the paintings, students can also discuss

senses that are affected by the artists’ choice of color and textures, as well as why or how these effects

are achieved.
 Le Huu 19
Conclusion
In using art as a more tangible means of learning and refining my writing skills, I discovered

that the process was more difficult than I had anticipated. Because all the exercises required the use of

highly specific words in order to create verbal images that would do the visual images justice, I

initially found myself thinking more than writing. However, as I got more comfortable with retrieving

the more colorful words and filtering out generic ones, I was able to play around with the images a lot

more fluently. Subsequent writing exercises became easier to handle, and I was having more fun with

wordplay and painting with words, following the leads the paintings provided.

Looking back over my responses to the different prompts, I felt that I was getting more

imaginative, conjuring images that I wouldn’t (even couldn’t) have prior to doing this research project.

Additionally, having examined works of art has fine-tuned my observation skills. I think that I have a

greater appreciation of art now than I had before, which is also another, if minor, reason I was excited

by the idea of using art to teach writing. I love that I can give students opportunities to work with art

and to help them develop an appreciation for aesthetics.

Given the opportunity to do this project again, I would approach the original writing differently.

I would attempt two sets of writing, one prior to the writing exercises and one afterwards. It would be

interesting to examine the differences (or similarities) in my writing as a result of practicing ekphrasis.

I would also create more activities to address the limitations to this instructional approach. First of all,

it assumes that all students will be as interested as I am in exploring art—given a student who is not as

enthusiastic, the whole process could turn rather sour. Second, students are also assumed to have

somewhat developed visual literacy skills. Finally, the approach assumes that teachers will have access

to a large enough selection of artworks to make these strategies effective (student choice is a

significant factor as a motivator). As a solution, I propose that teachers interested in implementing the

ekphrastic approach to teaching writing extend the meaning of “art” by exploring authentic objects

that could be used as alternatives to paintings. It seems that the key that ensures the success of

ekphrasis lies not in the paintings, but in creating connections between the concrete and abstract worlds.
 Le Huu 20
Bibliography

Text
Walsh-Piper, K. (2002). Image to word: art and creative writing. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Illustrations
1.0 Greenwood, John. Sea Captains Carousing at Surinam. 1758, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis.
from Walsh-Piper, K. (2002). Image to word: art and creative writing. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow
Press, Inc.

1.1 van Ruisdael, Jacob, Wooded_Landscape with Waterfall. ca. 1665-1670, North Carolina Museum of Art.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/287/24/3177

1.2 Barney, Matthew. Drawing Restraint 7. 1993, The Museum of Modern Art
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/1997/dannheisser/barney.html

1.3 van Hulsdonck, Jacob. Still Life with Lemons, Oranges, and Pomegranate. ca. 1620-1640, J. Paul Getty
Museum, Los Angeles.
from Walsh-Piper, K. (2002). Image to word: art and creative writing. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow
Press, Inc.

1.4 George Bellows. Tennis at Sunset. 1960, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/viewOne.asp?dep=21&viewmode=0&item=67.187.121

1.5 Artist Unknown, Photograph of Railay Beach, Krabi, Thailand.

http://www.hotelthailand.com/krabi/images/krabi.jpg

1.6 Whistler, James McNeill. Portrait of Artist’s Mother. 1871, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
http://www.mr-whistlers-art.info/art/paintings/portraits/mother.shtml

1.7 Hopper, Edward. People in the Sun. 1960, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Gift of S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/exhibits/hopper/p26-people.html

1.8 Pissarro, Camille. Louveciennes. 1871, private collection.

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/tuchman/tuchman9-29-05_detail.asp?picnum=7

1.9 Cézanne, Paul. Louveciennes. ca. 1872, private collection.

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/tuchman/tuchman9-29-05_detail.asp?picnum=8