The first session of Writing in the Galleries: Art as a Pathway to Memory kicked off last Saturday morning at the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) and took participants back in time as we surrounded ourselves with the sculpture of Nick Cave in his new exhibit Feat.
David Matteson, OMA’s Associate Curator of Education & Outreach, provided insight and background information on Cave’s Soundsuits exhibit. Then we discussed the importance and process of narrowing our focus when writing memoir. After studying a Cave sculpture and visiting other times and places in memory, the participants wrote their stories, and man, were they great.
If you’ve been around me for more than two minutes, you’ve probably heard me talk about the five-year journal and how I believe everyone should keep one. It is the easiest, quickest way to write your life story. It takes only five minutes a day. Who doesn’t have five minutes to document the day just lived?
I’ve kept a five-year journal now for thirteen years since my husband and I married in 2005. Talk about a wealth of stories nestled in the pages of those three journals. Each page holds five years of experiences of the day, so every time you open it up (once you start year two), you revisit memories from years past. That is so fun!
Thursday afternoon, I had the great pleasure of walking through the Orlando Museum of Art’s (OMA) latest exhibit, Nick Cave: Feat, and hearing the artist talk about his work. I’ll be using one of Nick Cave’s sculptures as part of the Art as a Pathway to Memory four-session writing workshop this coming Saturday, September 15 from 10:00 a.m. to noon.We still have seats available, so reserve yours now. You can attend individual sessions or sign up for the series at a discounted price and receive a free copy of my book, Eating an Elephant: Write Your Life One Bite at a Time. Your registration fee also includes free entry into the museum where you can visit Nick Cave: Feat and all OMA’s amazing exhibits.
It takes courage to change your life’s course, especially when you have a lot to lose, and the odds are against your success. That’s just what Dr. Nell Irvin Painter did when she left her chaired professorship at Princeton University to attend art school at the age of sixty-four.Already a celebrated historian and author of several acclaimed works of history including Standing at Armageddon and the New York Times bestseller The History of White People, Painter decided to retire and pursue a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Then, she wrote a memoir about the experience—Old in Art School.
Next Saturday, September 15th, join me and Orlando Museum of Art Associate Curator of Education & Outreach, David Matteson, as we explore the connection between art and story at Writing In the Galleries: Art as a Pathway to Memory.
Participants needn't know anything about writing or art to attend. There will be much to gain from that…
Did you ever see the 2006 movie Night at the Museum? In it, a natural history museum security guard gets more than he bargained for when he discovers that an ancient curse causes the museum's taxidermy animals and exhibits to come to life. As expected, this event creates chaos that he has to manage.
I've always wanted to spend the night in a museum and have those treasured objects all to myself in the quiet darkness. It is definitely a fun exercise to imagine some of those objects coming to life and interacting with me.
This article was provided by Writing Your Life team member Amanda Benson.Earlier this week I received a newsletter from Patricia’s friend Lezlie Laws with LifeArt Studio. Reading it got me thinking again about some of the lessons from Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir, which we studied in Patricia’s recent six-week writing class.
“In memoir, you’re the mommy, and the reader’s the baby,” states Karr. What she means is writers have a great deal of work to do in feeding their readers the story in small, tasteful bites, all along nursing a deepening connection between readers and themselves.
Why is this important? Can’t we just tell our stories without worrying too much about our readers? Sure, we can do whatever we want with our stories. Yet, this is the point where knowing our “why” comes into play. Understanding why we to tell our story vastly informs how we tell it.
If you are newer to the writing process, it may feel overwhelming. What does one do with all of the little stories in order to make them into a real book?
We are here to help! Follow along in this series of bites in the coming weeks to learn more. To see the last two bites, go here and here.
Bite #7 - Now Get a Bigger Notebook
You’ve done it. You’ve decided to write your life stories. Maybe you have already started the project, and a few stories are written. Now what? How do you organize such an overwhelming project? How do you segment such a big life, full of memories, into smaller, more manageable segments?
How can visual art stimulate memories of our life’s experiences? Then, how do we best capture the recollections that arise?
Join me at the crossroads of art and memory as we experience works in the Orlando Museum of Art galleries, and use them to add life, color, and texture to your stories. Fill your writer’s palette with tools that help you write vivid description that will engage your senses and make people and places live and breathe. Examine the brush strokes of good storytelling and have a lot of fun doing it!
Last fall I began a small group writing class of only six people, meeting weekly for six weeks. The format and style of this class were unlike any previously offered, with the added bonus of convening in my home classroom. I just wrapped up the second series of six-week classes, and I wanted to share with you more about this newer teaching platform that I offer.
My in-home classroom.
In the past, I’ve taught larger classes, for nine weeks at a time. I’ve also done many, many workshops and speaking presentations to big groups. There is something about being in a small group, though, that makes for a much different class experience. I’ll let some of my class members share their thoughts.
“Being with the same six writers for the six-week class helped,” said Cheryl Floyd, “because we were able to get to know each other better, learn to recognize our writing styles and see growth between submissions.”
“With only 6 people you really get to know the writing voice of each person. I was more invested in what the others wrote because I was closer to each person in the group,” said Becky McGregor.
The first session of Writing in the Galleries: Art as a Pathway to Memory kicked off last Saturday morning at the Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) and took participants back in time as we surrounded ourselves with the sculpture of Nick Cave in his new exhibit Feat.
David Matteson, OMA’s Associate Curator of Education & Outreach, provided insight and background information on Cave’s Soundsuits exhibit. Then we discussed the importance and process of narrowing our focus when writing memoir. After studying a Cave sculpture and visiting other times and places in memory, the participants wrote their stories, and man, were they great.
