What are two memorable moments in teaching this course? and why?

Students work at their own pace in my classes. Some people create many images, tell many stories. Others are more singular in their focus. One person worked for an entire 10 weeks on a very complicated autobiographical large drawing. It had layers, including maps, a delicately drawn self-portrait like image and ephemeral landscapes. She would participate in working on the weekly prompt and then she would integrate the new ideas into this drawing. The last week it all came together. She revealed its story and the class and I were deeply moved.

Another student hadn’t done collage since childhood. She decided that that was her medium, she could tell her story simply with cut painted paper.

Where do you draw inspiration from when telling a story through different forms of visual mediums? How do you or your students choose which medium will best suit the story you/they want to tell?

Some of the interesting art made in my class has included a great variety of materials including; a series of images painted to look like a scrapbook from an imagined performer’s life, a sewn portrait of a grandmother, where embroidered images of handbags were the repeated motif, drawn and painted journals and biographies of all kinds, the story of a shape, a watercolor field guide to invented birds, a gouache narrative about family migration and so much more. The class is entirely in the service of helping students find their own voice and then helping them to turn that voice into a visually compelling piece of art or series of images. I encourage students to play, to explore new materials, to discover and to take risks so they learn about themselves as well as the larger world of the visual narrative.

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Elise shares how to get started in telling a visual story