VISUAL ART AS TEXT
Recognizing visual artworks as “texts”, we participated in a workshop
inspired by design motifs of ancient Mexico and by works by the printmaker
Manuel Taure. The visual texts that we created were exhibited at Habla right
alongside the artworks of Manuel that had inspired us.
Manuel guided us through applying elements of design to create our own
artworks that represented for each of us how our imaginations allow us to
fly. We explored elements of pattern / repetition / positive and negative
space / line quality / and balance, and completed our artworks by
circulating between three stations: one for inking, one for printing, and
one for drying. This was followed by an introduction to ekphrastic poetry,
expanding our visual art responses to our original print text back out into
print text again. Each re-representation of content brings with it new
insight and awareness in an on-going, evolving relationship with the
original text.
Ekphrasis
“Description” in Greek. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.