The Art of Words at Follow Your Art - The Melrose Messenger

“The Art of Words” Puts Artists and Writers in Conversation at Follow Your Art

The Art of Words, now in its fourth year, is currently on display at Follow Your Art Community Studios (FYACS). The show pairs up artists and writers, exploring the intersection between words and visual media.

The inspiration for the show, explained Gallery Coordinator Sara Gravante, was the fact that FYACS houses not only artists’ studios but also a writers’ studio, providing a natural group of artists and writers to draw from. “It’s nice,” said Gravante, “because the two groups don’t often mingle. It’s a shared space, but we often work in isolation.”

Gravante called for artists and writers to sign up for the show in August, drawing on staff and other people affiliated with FYACS in order to balance out the numbers of artists and writers. Then she made the pairings at random, although she avoided pairing any artists and writers who had worked together in previous years.

Each artist or writer gave their partner a piece, and then each artist or writer was tasked with creating a work in response, so that each pairing generated four pieces - two written and two visual media. The written pieces might be poems, short stories, or excerpts from larger works, although they could be no longer than 350 words. The visual works could be small paintings, drawings, pieces of mixed-media art, or even textile art, although they were limited in size to no more than 16 inches square. Key to the exchange was the rule that each pair of pieces needed to share the same name, which was set by the artist or writer who provided the original or “prompt” piece.

“It’s better if it’s short,” explained Gravante, so the time frame for creating the response piece was only 4 weeks. “Artists and writers aren’t always good about deadlines and following rules,” Gravante joked, pointing out that it was her job to keep everyone on schedule and ensure that they were sticking to the guidelines.

The result of this year’s exchange was a remarkable conversation between artists and writers, most of whom have never worked together before. Some pairings were straightforward depictions of the same scene, while others created similar moods or used abstract figures or ideas to explore the same ideas and topics. As a whole, the show displayed some of the incredible breadth of talent, in both writing and visual art, contained within the FYACS community.

“The Art of Words” will be on display at Follow Your Art through October 31st. The Gallery is open to the public Monday-Friday from 10am to 6pm and Saturday from 10am to 1pm.