Storytelling with Art

                                      Trajan on the Roman Mammisi at Dendera, Egypt  

                                                            Photo:Olaf Tausch

I recently attended a virtual storytelling conference, Better" | A STORY 2021 Intensive hosted by Story Gatherings. Better was the emphasis; telling stories about the better world we want to live in. Storytelling and art for a better world, what a great idea.

As human beings we are hardwired to tell stories. It is one of our primary mechanisms for sharing and retaining information. The visual arts provide many wonderful opportunities and examples of stories. I am currently watching a series of informative documentaries about ancient Egypt on Curiosity Stream. The art on the stone walls of the tombs is telling stories to guide the deceased in their journey to the afterlife, providing instructions.

                               Altarpiece with the Passion of Christ: Crucifixion

ca. 1480-1495 (Late Medieval)

Walters museum

Religious art of the Middle Ages provided a mostly illiterate population “storybooks” about the Bible. My parents had a large coffee table book of art I would peruse as a child. It was the distressing Bible stories I remember most vividly. As art became more secular, the stories continued of course.

 

                                                       The Scream, Edvard Munch, 1893

                                                                    Munch Museum

Who doesn’t see this, feel the emotion and mentally write the back story on this image?

Luncheon of the Boating Party 

(1881; French: Le Déjeuner des canotiers)  Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Phillips Collection

A happier story is being told in Luncheon of the Boating Party by Renoir.

                               

                                 Johannes Vermeer,Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665; Dutch) 

You probably read or watched The Girl with a Pearl Earring based on this painting. That’s a story fleshed out in great detail.  If you are like me, there is an archive of images of artwork you have seen over the years that has informed your understanding of the human experience. 

Our BWAC exhibitions are great reservoirs of story. When I met fellow BWAC artist Donnelly Marks we had a conversation in front of her photographs of draped fabric while she explained to me she was using these tools (ie fabric and photography) to express/explore human emotions. My conversation with her helped me read her stories in a new way and develop a greater appreciation for her work.

Donnelly Marks, Transitions Nº 8442, 24"x36", photograph

BWAC artist Priscilla Stadler, in our current juried show Threads That Bind, tells a poignant story about precariousness in her piece Welcome to Fragile City:Red Hook.This hits all of us close to home.  As frequently happens, her statement provides information that enhances our engagement with the visual content.

                                  Priscilla Stadler, Welcome to Fragile City:Red Hook

                                   Currently installed at BWAC's Threads That Bind 

In this recent collage, I am thinking about the story of a calm state of mind…or perhaps providing a vehicle for arriving at a calm state of mind. 

                                 Kristin Reiber Harris, Calm, collage, 2021

I have never had trouble finding a story in artwork, whether it’s what the artist intended is not always clear. That is the beauty of humans’ creative brains. We are good at finding and telling stories, real and imagined.

 What kind of stories is your art telling?