Writing About Your Artwork
1. A metaphor that describes your artwork or something in or part of the artwork:
Colors and shapes overlap, dancing while surrounded by a sea of stars.
2. A simile that describes your artwork or something in or part of the artwork:
The curvilinear shapes jiggle like jelly.
3. A limerick that you write about your artwork:
Joan Miro’s Personages with Star,
is a painting that takes my mind quite far–
colors dancing together as if they’re on dates,
so many colors that they could be just mates,
who cares as long as homegirl’s new shoes don’t leave a scar.
4. A haiku that you write about your artwork:
Shapes and colors move.
In the sea of stars they dance.
Giving happy vibes.
5. An 8-line (minimum) rhyming couplet that you write about your artwork:
Only with you can I dance with no trouble,
Together we dance like we’re in our own bubble.
Nature plays sweet music for our ears,
Lost in our motions, has it been seconds or years?
Feeling appreciation for every sunrise,
We’re soaking up life, this shouldn’t surprise.
As long as the stars overhead don’t stop shining,
We know that there will always be a silver lining.
6. A list of at least 10 adjectives that describe your artwork:
-colorful
-shapely
-abstract
-biomorphic
-subjective
-warm
-curvy
-busy
-active
-playful
-celebratory
7. Re-title your artwork and briefly tell why you have given it this new title:
Dance of the Space Natives by Joan Miro
My explanation: There is no distinct foreground, the shapes and colors seem to be floating, and combined with the repetition of the star, I think of outer space. The overlapping of shapes, both curvilinear and rectilinear, give such movement to this painting, I immediately think of dance. The shapes somewhat resemble human appendages, and so I shall call them “space natives.”
8. Type a tweet about your artwork:
Joan Miro’s, Personages with Star makes me want to spend the rest of my money on paint. I will not plan out every detail. I will just paint.
9. Think of yourself shipwrecked and alone on an island for six months. A large watertight box washes ashore. You break open the box and find this original artwork in the box. Write a richly descriptive 500-word statement telling what it is like to find this artwork, your initial response to it, and what it is like to be the new owner of this artwork. Give your creative writing a title.
Although I’ve only been shipwrecked on this unknown island for six months, it feels like I’ve been here for a year. I am somehow alone on this island, but have still managed to survive. Fortunately I am surrounded by exotic fruits, which I have been sustaining myself on. The weather here is quite hot during the daytime, but come night it gets significantly cooler. With no one to talk to, and nothing to worry about except keeping myself alive and figuring out how to get home, I have had tons of free time. With my free time, I have created a shelter and a makeshift studio. I’ve been collecting flat rocks, and large chucks of driftwood to work on, using the vast array of plants and berries, crushed up as a paint medium. I haven’t seen any ships around this island in months, but yesterday morning something spectacular happened! I was just waking up as the sun began to rise, and I started what was now my daily routine. I walked towards the shore to begin my beach yoga cycle, when I noticed a large box drifting to shore. I excitedly ran into the water to retrieve the box. The thought that something deadly could have been inside did not even cross my mind. The box served as a symbol of hope to me. Once I had dragged the box to what seemed like a safe distance from the ocean, I ran back to my shelter to grab the large, heavy stick that I had found and saved. I knew it would come in handy for something. With the stick, I carefully beat the boxes edges until it was cracked open. Inside I found a rolled up piece of canvas. I slowly began to unfurl the canvas until I could see that it was in fact a very large oil painting! The painting appeared to be at least 6 x 8 feet, if you can imagine that. It was not something that I recognized, but I was speechless. The colors in the painting were so rich and warm, but I noticed cool elements as well. The scale alone captured me completely. What I did recognize was the shape of a star, used more than once in the piece. I felt comforted by this aspect. The painting appeared to have subjects or appendages resembling humans, but they were definitely abstracted. I noticed curvilinear shapes along with some rectilinear shapes, but they were overlapping each other. The longer that I stared, the more I started to sense this intense movement. It was as if the shapes were dancing together. I felt this overwhelming sense of connectedness with this painting almost immediately. I’ll admit that this feeling may have been linked to the fact that I had not had human contact in months, regardless; this painting was like a blessing from God. For me, finding this was like an otherworldly presence signaling that I was going to make it. As the new owner of this painting, I treated it as if it was my significant other, bound to me for life. I did not continue with my yoga routine that day, I instead went back to my shelter and began to make a special space for the painting, so that nothing could harm it.
10. What one or two words describe a central theme of your selected artwork?
· Intuition
· Escapism
· Individuality