Category: WRT 212

I thought this time in class with Professor Gorham was really beneficial for my creative process. Having a bunch of materials out in front of me really starts to get my cogs moving. I had a good idea pop into my head sitting and waiting to get my materials. What if I were to bring an artifact that I wrote about in my story, to the real world. In this case, I plan on doing a replica Exorcist artbook like the kids in my story had found in their adventures. I thought that this idea would be an interesting take on creativity. I chose to do the accordion style a honestly because for me that would be an easier medium to work with. Being known to be clumsy all throughout my life I tend to stay away from sewing and needles. For the future of my artbook I plan on making almost a comic style illustrations with creepy undertones and dark colors. I chose comic style drawings because I beleive I can excell and make a relatively put together book this way considering my artistic talent. Having done my apprentice artbook wrong at first actually helped me in the long run. Making this book on my short story I kind of got an idea on what I wanted to use for the setup of my artist book. Even though I had to make 2 apprentice artist books in the end I honestly beleive that this would help me in the long run giving me more experience working with this medium.

This was the original Apprentice Artbook that I had created. Somewhere along the line, I confused myself thinking that this artist book would be in fact on our own stories. Unfortunately, I was wrong, but I still feel as though I should have included this since it is a step in the right direction. This helped me get somewhat of an idea of what I want to do on my Final Artbook at the end of the semester.

After realizing that I had done the wrong story this is my second attempt at the Apprentice Artist book. To be honest I am a lot happier with the second one mostly due to my use of colors. The colors in this story really pop out and I used them to make certain points in the story shine through more than others. I chose Everything is Far From Here due to its heavy background. It also helped that this story was full of imagery and thoughtful writing. I chose red white and blue for my pages throughout to signify that this is in fact happening in the United States of America. I chose to put in other colors or pictures to contrast the color of the background and also to give key points of what was going on throughout the story. Two key points of imagery that I used to signify key points in the story were, the box and the American flag and truck. On the page refering to the the box shows powerful imagery because she feels so alone in this tiny box that seems to be shrinking around her, she doesnt have much hope left. The page with the american flag cape and the old ford truck were to signify the old american views such as prejudice and racism, unfortunately we still deal with this problem in our country every day. I definetely think some of my artwork or creativity could have been a little better. Also I am awful at drawing people so usualy they will end up being stick figures… No shame.

Reflection

I was actually quite happy with how the audience; being the class absorbed my short story. One thing that stood out and I was super proud of was the fact that most everyone who was workshopping the story felt as though this story was in the mind of a 10–12-year-old kid. This made me happy because that was exactly the way that I wanted the story to be conveyed. Another thing I was happy about was the acceptance of the setting from the audience. Most everyone knew where it was and that there was definitely a creepy undertone throughout the story. If I were to continue on with this story and revise it I would have to do two things differently. First off I will spend more time on the little details of the story making the reader feel like they were right alongside the three trouble-making boys. Another thing that I would do to the story would be to adjust the beginning. One point made in class was to start the story with one of my lines “Zack could be considered a rough guy” With this opener it can hook the reader and also arise questions that could be answered later on in the story. I would also spend a little bit more time on how Zack was such a rough guy and flesh out his character a little more. Overall, I enjoyed this experience of getting out of my comfort zone of creating a story and sharing it with a group of other people. I also kind of like that we essentially get to play god.

One thing that really stuck with me during this reading of Bird by Bird was that it is okay to relate back to your childhood to help your writing. When I read about starting with your childhood to begin writing my mind instantly flooded with childhood memories. Each memory being something different that you could write about. Using these memories can create images in your mind that is easily accessible and ready to be written about. I liked the quote from Flannery O’Connor “anyone who survived childhood has enough material to write for the rest of your life.” This is true because the vast amount of experiences that you have been through in your childhood could be used for writing fuel. You do not even necessarily have to take specific examples from your childhood, but you can let them inspire your writing.

After reading the interview about artists books it changed my outlook on what an “artist book” is. When I first heard the term “artist book” I immediately reminisced to my childhood and the stories involved like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I imagine art books being illustrations accompanying the text. But my view point changed when I read about ‘Emissions’ from Susan Johanknetch, the book that they created could be considered art itself before even opening it. It is a two-part art piece one being the visual art of the book and the impression it gives you when you first look at it, but it also gives you the art that is on the inside which is the true meat, the Literature. Two different genres of art that work well together that I have experienced is Led Zeppelin music. The lyrics of some of the songs are poetic in form, and the electric guitar is the other art form.