Art & Writing: How You Can Go from Bad to Brilliant
The long lazy days of summer sitting on the front porch rocking chair with a notebook, in the park under a shade tree or on the beach at dusk are the perfect times for generating new content for your newsletter, social media, artist statements, bios, etc or just writing stories to spark inspiration for new work.
The following is a very helpful, expanded repost of an article I wrote in 2023 about why writing is important for artists and how you can sharpen your skills with just a few easy tips.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I was a late bloomer, attending graduate school at the ripe old age of 34. Prior to that time, I hadn't had a traditional art school education, I attended design school. It was a fine school for what it was, but did not stress critique, critical thinking or verbal/written statements of expression and I hadn't developed any of those skills in my professional career as a textile designer. Grad school was a shake up in many ways but I can't even explain to you how shaken up I was when I turned in my first art history paper only to be told by my esteemed (not being sarcastic here, this guy is brilliant) professor that I was the worst writer he's ever read. I really respected this man and I felt totally dejected after that comment.
Up until this time, I hadn't really thought much about writing and whatever little writing I did, I thought was pretty good. How (and why) was I supposed to be a better writer, now in my mid-thirties and trying to focus on my studio work? Little did I know that that being a professional artist and a good writer go hand in hand...in fact, it's difficult for one to exist without the other. For me, graduate school was a flurry of writing papers, reading/research and thousands of hours crying in my studio. However, by the end of the two years there I received the best compliment ever from another professor whom I admired...my Graduate Thesis paper was a "standout" and "brilliant". How did I go from the worst writer to brilliant in two short years? In this article I list six reasons why artists need to sharpen their writing skills and then I'll let you in on some easy ways you can improve yours.
Organizing Those Wild Thoughts I admit, when I'm painting and in the zone, I have some wild thoughts from relationships to food to dreams to politics to outer space to nightmares and back again to my work. My thoughts flit in and out of sensical consciousness and every once in a while, a good idea breaks through...that's when the writing begins. Simply put, writing organizes the mind. Placing a thought, cognitive or visual, into words, helps to organize that thought into a linear sentence and in turn, a clear idea. By organizing your thoughts into clear ideas as a practice, your studio work will become more focused and intentional, just as the work itself becomes stronger and more powerful.
Artist Support Materials As artists, our research is primarily our work, but we do need support materials to go along with that work. This is an unfortunate reality, but in this extremely competitive art world, we must find ways to stand out from the rest. We also need the ability to adequately communicate our work, intent and process to others who may not be artists themselves. Writing good statements, grant proposals, residency applications, newsletters, social media, conference presentations, artist talks, books, essays and responses to competitive show opportunities are just a few ways in which writing becomes part of our professional artist lives.
Social Media We all hate it, but what the heck would we do without it? Let's face it, social media is an onerous necessity in a professional artist's world. Social media blurbs, newsletters, websites, blogs, just to name a few, are all ways in which we communicate to the world what it is we do. Whether you choose to contribute to one or all of these things, you must at least become adequate in written communication, whether you write for yourself or you hire out your marketing to someone else.
Titles & Stories First and foremost, the collector is attracted to the work itself, but an interesting title that speaks to the collector in a personal way can sometimes clinch the sale. With abstract work, the message is not always clear by just looking at the painting and the addition of creative titling or stories can act as as a supplement to it's visual communication. I always sign, title and date my paintings on the back and for most of them, I include a story or poem that explains the title. Many collectors respond in a positive way to this practice and it creates an intimate experience between the visual and written for the viewer. I can't tell you the number of paintings I've sold because the collector emotionally reacted to the title or the story behind it.
Drawing If you've read this far and still think it's not important for an artist to develop a writing practice, you may be surprised to learn that the act of writing can actually improve your drawing and painting skills. Quoting from the children's book writer/illustrator, Shoo Rayner, 'All writing comes from thought. All thought is visualization. Writing is an advanced form of creating images from visualized thought. Words are advanced forms of pictograms. Letters are advanced forms of marks made on the walls of caves.' In other words, the better we get at communicating through drawing, the better our writing will be and visa-versa, the two go together like chocolate and peanut butter. This is why I'm such a stickler for also developing a drawing practice, along with reading and writing. Those of you who have taken my workshops, know the 5-15 minutes a day rule of drawing very well. Writing will also keep you more in touch with yourself, your ideas and your work. Guaranteed. For some drawing prompts to get you started on your Drawing Practice, read this Art Bite Blog Post. To go even further in your Drawing Journey, consider joining a Virtual Drawing Support Group in the Fall and Spring for Mark-Making as Practice Plus.
Cy Twombly Did you know that Cy Twombly's iconic scribble actually comes from writing? In the US Army, Twombly served as a cryptologist, spending many hours creating and analyzing cryptic codes from abstract writings. During his artistic career, he developed a technique of 'gestural drawing characterized by thin white lines on a dark canvas that appear to be scratched onto the surface. He would apply bitumen on the canvas in a quick and coarse fashion, making the painting tactile and scarred with the energetic, gestural lines that would become his signature style.' His famous chalkboard paintings were created by riding the shoulders of a friend as he walked the length of a chalkboard while Twombly 'wrote' a gestural 'language' across the board. Once learning that his marks actually came from an interesting history and weren't just arbitrary scribbles, I gained so much respect for this artist who I had previously dismissed as a fraud. Now, I can't get enough of his work and someday hope to develop a scribble as fabulous and meaningful as his.
So now that you know why writing is important for your artistic practice, how do you get started if you’re not writing inclined? Below I've listed six easy ways, all of which helped me develop my writing. Keep in mind, that just as your work is a PRACTICE, so is writing. Therefore, it must be done everyday or several times a week in order to develop. As with any form of development, you must give yourself TIME and patience to develop. I guarantee that the more you write, the easier the words will come.
Reading & Summarizing My graduate thesis paper was brilliant because of the research I put in to write it. I was literally reading 5-10 books a week, highlighting and summarizing passages as I went. The paper itself was a two year labor of love, going through several drafts until the final. Not every graduate art program requires a thesis paper and I must admit, I resented having to write it on days when I wanted to be in the studio. But looking back, I see that it was probably one of the most significant parts of the development of my work during that time and without it, I can't see how my work would possess the meaningful content it had then and continues to have now. The key to writing that paper was reading books on subjects relating to my work and then summarizing what I read in my own words. Reading scholarly writing, poems and literature helps you to become a better writer. Now, you certainly don't need to read ten books a week, but 30 minutes every studio day is a good start. After your reading, write a short summary of what you read in your own words. Include any good quotes, facts or ideas from your reading in your summary. This will give you a wealth of written information regarding your interests and will make it's way into your work in some form, ultimately creating a stronger visual presentation.
Studio Log I started this practice in graduate school because I was also working two jobs and my studio time was broken into long segments with breaks in between, rather than a consistent everyday like most of my classmates. In the reading of my log, I could keep in mind what I had been working on and what I needed to do the next time I was in the studio. I found the practice so helpful I recommended it to grad students in the program once I became a professor. Some still write me today to tell me they've kept up their logs, it's just a part of their practice. Creating a Studio Log is really quite simple: Write the date and number of hours you've been in the studio that day. Next, summarize what you did in paragraph and sentence form in handwriting-no bullet points and no computer. What are the strengths/weaknesses of what you did? If any ideas came to mind during your studio time, write those as well. Last, write what you would like to do next time you're in the studio. These short paragraphs written over weeks, months and years are basically a thesis paper in rough draft form, offering you raw information that you can sharpen into scholarly writing about your work.
Take a Workshop Whether it's creative writing, poetry or ways in which text could make it's way into your paintings, a workshop could jump start a new body of work or series. In all of my workshops, writing is an important part of the daily practice and we'll spend a few minutes each day writing answers to various prompts related to the the workshop topic. Writing has become such an important part of teaching that I decided to team up with artist/writer Cynthia Morris to offer an encaustic retreat in Summer, 2023. Cynthia was my coach many years ago and helped to reinvigorate my writing practice. This retreat was not a 'how-to' for improving your writing skills, a creative writing course or about adding text to your work, although any one or all of those things were an option for exploration. I envisioned this retreat as a melding of creative work on paper, journaling, sketch-booking, all in combination with the lusciousness of encaustic and inspired by the beauty of the Vermont landscape. With the huge popularity of sketchbooks and the convenience of working on paper in encaustic, this retreat turned out to be an inspiration for all. Since that retreat, I’ve incorporated more sketchbook journaling, writing in many forms and use of text in the work in all of my encaustic workshops.
Use This Book If you've made it this far into the article, you deserve a bonus. The best kept secret book of excellent writing prompts for artists is Mapping the Intelligence of Artistic Work: An Explorative Guide to Making, Thinking & Writing by Anne West. It's a secret because it's not available on Amazon, unless you want to pay $500 and it doesn’t easily show up in Google searches, so having this link is an extra special bonus. I use this book extensively in my workshops and personal studio life. It's jam packed with thought provoking questions that you can return to again and again to spark creative ideas and most importantly, inspire you to write.
Use AI as a writing tool In this infant age of AI, its all too easy to just ask it to create any written content for you so that you can spend your summer day doing something fun. I admit, I often ask for AI’s advice on writing just to get me started out of a block. However, we cannot get sucked into the ease of AI without taking some precautions and realizing we must only think of it as a tool. First, as of now, AI is not a good writer-read anything written by it-there are way too many over the top adjectives and use of repetitive language for repetitive ideas and it’s way too polished, lacking any soul or humor. I may receive paragraphs in a response from AI, only to extract a three word phrase that is barely useful. If you use AI for writing, ALWAYS rewrite it in your voice. I’m proud to tell you that I never use AI to write Art Bite Blog or my Newsletter (scroll to the bottom of any page on my website to sign up). I want you to hear my stories from me in my very unpolished words.
Use AI as a research tool It’s amazing how research that would have taken me hours in Google searches, reading and trips to the library, now literally only takes minutes with AI’s assistance. However, just like writing, we must remember that AI is only a tool and just like it’s writing, AI is not perfect. I recently read a news story that a Chicago Sun Times freelancer wrote an article recommending books for the reader’s Summer reading lists. The only problem is that 10 of the 15 books on that list don’t exist, AI just made them up! So, even when you use it for research, make sure to verify the facts with a trusted source, perhaps several trusted sources. Remember, AI is just a toddler, a young teenager at best, and just like toddlers and teens, it can have a questionable relationship with the truth. It must be kept in check frequently and be watched almost constantly.