Jumpstart Your Poetry with Visual Art: A Poetry Lab

“Many poets have turned to visual art for inspiration,” says instructor Brian Tierney. “Writing poems that speak to or about paintings we love, or sculptures that captivate us, or photos that haunt us, can crack open our imagination and stretch our voice.” 

During this three-week class, you’ll experience a stimulating encounter with visual art through prompted writing exercises. Looking at paintings and photographs together, we’ll enter a dialogue, even a vibrant exchange, with another artistic medium. The class will function as a creative laboratory, where you’ll try out new techniques, such as creating poetic narratives on the “action” of a painting or capturing the personal associations a photograph fires off. Through these and other exciting experiments, you’ll generate fresh lines and poetic content. As a group, we’ll also read poets such as Nicole Sealey, Adam Zagajewski, and Natasha Tretheway to learn how other writers have responded to visual art, often in fascinating and unexpected ways. 

“In creative dry spells, visual art can break us out of old writing habits and shock us into fresh ways of seeing,” Brian says. “By the end of three weeks, you will have generated new poetry sourced in what happens when one vibrant imagination encounters another.”

About The Writing Salon's In-Person Classes

Before your class meets, you'll receive an email from The Writing Salon with more information about the class. If you have any questions about in-person learning, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at hello@writingsalons.com.