Making art or writing something is truly a magical process—I’ve always been astounded by the ability for something to seemingly come out of nothing. In both drawing and in writing you start with a blank page, and then just by layering some values or stringing words together it can become a full-blown piece of art or a book. For example, when working with charcoal you begin by shading the paper with a layer of charcoal and then you can start pulling values out by going in with an eraser or by adding more charcoal. After some time of reworking that original layer of charcoal (time to complete depends on the size of the paper), it becomes a finished piece of art. It reminds me of the fifth stanza in Everett’s poem “Logic”:
“From rags and dust, a rat is formed in the cellar. It was not there before. Only rags and dust.”
Funnily enough, the Rag and Bone man would collect rags and bring them to papermakers so they could be recycled into paper. Therefore the “rags and dust” could be seen as potential paper, and the “rat” as the finished artwork. Looking at a finished piece of art, it’s hard to imagine that it started off as a blank slate. Even when I do my own artwork, I still can’t comprehend how it happened. It’s not that I don’t understand the technicalities of making art, but for me, there’s always a part of the process where the components of the piece haven’t quite come together yet and I’m always uncertain if they ever will. All I can do at this stage of the process is follow what I learned from my high school art teacher, Mr. Stahl. I had him for all four years, and he was not only a great influence but also taught me a lot of important things about making art. I’ve been able to apply the things I learned from him in not only my art but in my writing as well.
For instance, Mr. Stahl put a lot of emphasis on contrast within our art, constantly reminding us to “push our values.” To build on my previous charcoal example, if there’s no contrast then the whole thing will just look grey. It’s crucial to really go in with the eraser and highlight the lighter values and to also go in with more charcoal and deepen the darker values. This makes it so the different components of the piece highlight one another, making it stronger and much more visually appealing. Just as contrast is integral in art, it’s also a necessity in any form of writing. The different points that are being made in a piece of writing should not all stand apart and blend together—they should build off of and highlight one another. Furthermore, when it comes to drawing a still-life, Mr. Stahl urged us to draw only what we SEE, not what we THINK we should see. All of the answers are always there within the still-life, you just have to look. This relates to the necessity of writing arguments based on textual evidence; the tools needed to make a sound argument can always be found in the text. Finally, when doing work with colored pencils Mr. Stahl reminded us that we aren’t coloring we’re shading. He explained that coloring is mindless, and that shading requires you to consider exactly how to layer the color in a way that will create vivid values. When writing, the writer should think about what they want to say and arrange carefully selected words in a manner that they will convey meaning instead of being a random hoard of words on a page. But these are just a few examples of how I’ve been able to connect art and writing, there are many more. I’m still working on getting better at the execution of what I have learned, but these examples show that it takes hard work to produce anything; artwork and writing don’t come out of nothing even though it can seem like they do.
One of the learning outcomes for this course is understanding why we should read, and while there are many reasons why I think that a major reason we should is because authors put A LOT of effort into their writing; they are able to string words together in a way that forms something powerful with the ability to intrigue and inspire others, and all of that needs to be appreciated. But beyond appreciation, seeing what can come of hard work is the most motivating thing for me when it comes to my own writing.