Ekphrastic workshop check list

This begins as an outline for a writing workshop on July 21, 2009 in Missoula Montana at the Dana Gallery and Fact & Fiction.

1. What is the perspective.

a. artist
b. audience(s) and their reaction
c. personal = you
d. subject(s)
e. media = canvas, paper, ink, paint, etc.

2. Senses.

Sound: made/heard
Sight: seen/seen-by-subject
Touch: physical/technique (smooth/rough)
Taste: evoked/portrayed
Smell: physical/portrayed/evoked
Movement: wind/motion-of-subject, suggested/real

3. Where/when is it takes place.

Season, temperature, time-of-day, geography, century.

4. Negative space.

What is left out. Literally and figuratively. Details/lack-of

5. Placement. Static/change [Pietà in America]

6. Emotional response.


Observations while meeting with Peggy Novotny:

Kent Lovelace, "Vaucluse"

oil on copper, smooth (almost like enamel), season?, where?, movement? silence?, time of day?, smell?

Robert Moore, "Aspen Grove"

abstract, not quiet, bold strokes, rough, movement?, season?, canvas?, sound?, smell? what's missing?

H. Steve Oiestad

no landscape, no place, subjects = 5 dogs and one man, details?, neutral ocher white-space, charcoal, color?, movement?, sound?, taste?, smell?, what's the story?

Jonathan Qualben "Spring"

reinforced concrete, tactile, notice navel, no arms, mask for a face, a chrysalis abandoned, interior space, three dimensional, four?, movement?, draping flow, rough and smooth.

Michael Gallacher and others in the vault

what stories are told by photographs,serigraphs, etc.

Soda, stools, when, where, age difference, follow the eyes, joy, smell, sound

Nun with a racket, sound, touch, taste, focus, color, cultural response

Wipe out, sound, feel, season, perspective, color

Shepard with a dog, where, when, motion, sound, smell, what's left out, color silhouette, focal point

Pink flamingos, color vs lack of, movement, stillness, season, sound

Silhouette and shadow, color, size of shadow, emotion evoked, where, when, time of day

Autumn pacifier, season-child contrast, different than pastorals?, movement, story, smell, sound, taste, touch