Just Imagine - Wollongong City Gallery

Just over a month ago I was opening the Just Imagine exhibition at the Wollongong Art Gallery. To steal directly from the exhibition website: An exciting program which encourages children’s creative writing skills by the exploration of real and imagined worlds experienced through close engagement with art.

As author in residence my role included running workshops for teachers, primary students and high school students. I love workshops. It’s so inspiring. There is no more powerful creative force than a young imagination. A simple exercise on metaphors and similes yielded a rainbow of lorikeets and a city of stars in the sky. Beautiful images that are still with me.

There has always been a relationship between literature and art. Ever since the first story tellers stood in front of cave paintings, turning art into words. No doubt exaggerating their own part and amping up the action to make it the best story possible.

I searched the Internet to find a good example of art inspiring literature for my opening speech. I immediately stumbled upon Isle of the Dead by Albert Bocklin. I had never heard of it before. A haunting, evocative, gothic image. It’ll be appearing in one of my pages soon. It inspired twelve novels, stories or mentions in novels as well as film and theatre scripts and anime. But you know I shouldn’t have needed to look. I’ve never been to any of the places I write about but I immerse myself in photos and art to help imagine.

So the relationship between literature and art is as old as the caves. But what is totally new is the vision new young writers bring to an image. It was wonderful to be a part of it.

In the picture: Natalie from the Wollongong Unishop who sponsor the creative writing competition, Rachel who wrote a winning story based on the picture behind us January Fires by Clem Millward, and me.

Just Imagine 2010

I'm very excited to be part of Wollongong City Gallery's Just Imagine 2010 project. I'm a sort-of author in residence - opening the exhibition and running writing workshops for students and teachers. The program "encourages children’s creative writing skills by the exploration of real and imagined worlds experienced through close engagement with art" to plagiarise the Gallery website. I couldn't have put it better myself and I'm the writer!

It's exciting stuff. Twelve exhibits - paintings, sculpture and even a marvellous contraption called a Windmobile are on display until 6 June. Primary (Years 5 -6) and secondary students and teachers are encouraged to attend workshops to learn creative inspired from visual stimuli. Students can enter a competition with winning entries published in an anthology.

Here is my favourite piece. I want to write about that one. Very, Very Important by Michael Zavros. I would do what I call "looking with my other glasses on" and extract my story from what is unusual in the picture. I would use lots of dialogue because I can see an opportunity to be quirky and funny. There's a conversation happening here. The shoes are talking!

Today was the teacher's workshop. I was a little nervous. I am a overawed by teachers. When my first child started school it took me six months before I could stop addressing his teacher as Mrs... no matter how many times she told me not to! I have so much respect for the work teachers do and committed teachers like today's attendees are wonderful people.

While I was there I heard the most amazing story. I apologise if some of the details are not 100% as I heard this second-hand from a Gallery volunteer- it was discussed at an earlier session before I arrived. But the concept is the important thing. I was admiring a display of stories and images and asked what it was about. In a previous year, a primary school and high school had written their stories and exchanged them for the other to draw pictures from. The story and subsequent picture were placed alongside the original artwork stimuli. There were some interesting differences and amazing similarities as the circle turned. But what I like best was how the community of schools worked together.

And that's what the whole program is about, interaction. Between image and word. Between Gallery and schools. Between artists, writers, student and teachers. Just imagine that!