Where did I go?

I'm back.  Some of you may be wondering where I went.  I had the opportunity to go to a National Writer's Workshop, sponsored by the Virginia Writer's Workshop of the University of Virginia.  It was a workshop dedicated entirely to writing.  I learned that writing is an ART.  From the moment you touch pen, pencil, marker, or crayon to paper you have decidedly become an artist. 

Many of you probably know that the first storys that were documented weren't even written at all, they were drawn.  Over thousands and thousands of years cultures have developed their own systems of writing to communicate.  Which begs the question, so, Ms. Fitzpatrick, Why do we still make art?  And my answer to you is because it's still a way for us to communicate, and share thoughts and feelings.  Images and texts are important to our society, and without them we may say nothing at all.

Here is an amazing site that takes you on a virtual tour of some of the first cave drawings ever discovered.

Here are a few artists who use text in their art work.  (I often do myself)

Barbara Kruger
Jenny Holzer
Ed Ruscha
Micography

And of course Graffiti

Here is what I did over the two days I was in the workshop.  I'm showing you everying, my ideas, my mistakes, my progress, my revisions, and my editing.  It's much like my process I use in my art work.

The first step was to think about what we wanted to write and how we wanted to write it.

I decided to do more of a graphic example in the beginning with rough sketches.

Then we had to start revising.  Adding, taking away, just thinking about content.

Here are some notes that talk little bit more about revision and ideas.

I decide to change the way I'm writing, seeing if it has more impact in paragraph form and using a different tense. Also rearranging sentences.

Getting closer I start to think I can leave out whole sentences.  This was beginning the process of Editing.

Ok! I think I have it.  I'd like to incorporate my writing with a drawing.  Here's a sketch.



Having realized I could still edit, I re-write the piece and look at the structure. 

I'm not completely done, but I think my writing is complete. In the workshop, most teachers said,"  If I had more time I would write less."  I think that's true.