Jumpstart Workshop - ekphrastic !

In our recent Jumpstart workshops, we've been doing some ekphrastic writing, which is descriptive writing about or a  response to visual art. We've been having fun looking at paintings and photos, imaging stories and practicing our visual descriptions.

Here's my response to a postcard of Claude Monet's painting "Wheat Stacks at Dawn."

Frost is the frosting on these giant cupcakes of hay waiting in the pale pearly peachlight of dawn for the Giant of Alsace to stomp down the hill for his morning meal. At least so far, he's been happy with hay. What might happen if he decides to go all keto on us and demand ostrich-eggs over easy and a side of humans to start his day?   ~ Lakin

Another example is Anne Sexton's poem "Starry Night" one of many ekphrastic responses to the painting of the same name by Vincent Van Gogh. And  I'm sure we all remember Don McLean 's  song, "Starry Starry Night" --- another example of an artist in one medium responding to an artist from another.

Hope you find a chance to write ekphrastically, too, locating an image that sparks your imagination or elicits a response. Or take a chance with random postcards or images in a magazine or museum brochure. Or even better, treat yourself to a trip to an art museum and spend some time writing there. What could be better? 

Andy Goldsworthy in San Francisco

Hit the title or link below for the complete story, but the upshot is that Andy Goldsworthy is building a sculpture/installation this month in the Presidio. I was alerted to this via Zyzzyva and Howard Junker's blog, in which he stumbles by the installation site on one of his walks. Only in SF. (Junker also announced his immanent resignation as editor of the Journal. that's an era )

http://www.presidio.gov/experiences/spire.htm

Goldsworthy's work is inspirational; I am entranced by his imaginative use of natural materials. To me, he personifies the drive we have in us to create something, anything, whether it's useful or not. It's a drive that can sometimes be seen in animals, too, though we usually see their more useful creations: nests, burrows, dens. It's the sort of thing that children often do, just making things out of what's around them. But Goldsworthy takes it all one mega-step further. Not just in size but in concept and stunning beauty. But it's not something so easily described, so if you aren't familiar with him, here are some links.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=andy+goldsworthy&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

www.morning-earth.org/ARTISTNATURALISTS/AN_Goldsworthy.html>

and...any of you Bay Area folks up for a field trip to the Presidio?