Explore Hybrid Art: Combining Writing and Visual Expression
Are you a writer? Or are you beginning to explore the writing life? Have you ever thought of combining your writing with another art form? Whether you are looking for new ways to express yourself or seeking new publishing opportunities; what is referred to as Cross Genre, Mixed Media, or Hybrid Form is something you should consider.
The idea for this week’s blog post came about, because I attended a book launch for Paint like a Butterfly, a book that combines visual art and the written word. The timing for a book about an artist’s pollinator garden could not have been more perfect. This was the weekend we set back our clocks to winter standard time. and nights are beginning to turn cold. Trees are starting to change color and leaves are falling to the ground. It’s a little too early for home gardeners to start pouring over seed catalogues, imagining what they’ll start planting in early spring, but if you live in the Greater Washington D.C, Annapolis, Baltimore region, local artist Jean Brinton Jaecks book quickly transports you into her garden.
Jean Brinton Jaecks Publishes Paint Like a Butterfly
Titled, Paint Like a Butterfly; An Artist’s Pollinator Garden, the words are accompanied by Jean Brinton Jaecks’ stunning watercolors. In turning the pages its hard to decide whether the inspiration for a particular chapter began with the transcription of a memory or the desire to record a particular image. This got me to thinking about the creative process of all writers, whether we are musicians or poets.
The pages of Jean’s book, inspired by the migration of the Monarch butterfly and her own pollinator garden, are filled with pictures of flowers, plants, shrubbery and insects. Carefully laid out and designed by Jean’s husband Harry Lloyd Jaecks, who is also a visual artist, it’s a beautiful book.
Writers Working in Alternate Art forms
Just this week, sharing coffee with some writer friends, we talked about our best practices for generating creative work as well as finding time to accomplish said work. Local Annapolis region writer Renee Zemanski confessed she’s been painting watercolors for her creative release as a break from her professional nonfiction writing responsibilities. My friend Margaret Rose Caro is both a visual artist, designer and a writer; so already she has combined mediums. My writer friend Jane Elkin, who possesses a beautiful soprano voice, sings. As for myself, I’ve done all forms of art at one time or another including the illustrations for my Santa book for children, but try to stay focused on writing. I do very much enjoy making collages. Maybe I should be making collages and combining them with poems or prose as an artistic exploration.
Combining visual arts and writing is something I blogged here in this column in reference to my Old Scratch Press Short Form Collective colleague Morgan Golladay who recently published poetry collection The Song of North Mountain that she also illustrated. Writers who also paint, play an instrument, act, or dance is not a new phenomenon, but it does provide a way for an artist to create from a different vantage point.
To further explore the concept of combining art forms, I’m providing a short list of a few publications to investigate. ONLINE MAGAZINES that PUBLISH MIXED MEDIA OR HYBRID WORK
Visit their websites, read currents and back issues to get a sense of what they are publishing and to learn about the work of fellow creators.
Not included in this list, are publications that have a special comics/graphic novel department, which is another way you can combine pictures and words to tell a story.
A Sampling of Hybrid Publishing Platforms.
You will learn what is getting published by reading their back issues.
Harpy Hybrid Review is an online literary journal that celebrates the many and varied ways literary and poetic expression can be combined.
We seek works that are hybrid or cross-genre in form as well as visual art, including but not limited to prose poems, lyric essays, translations, song lyrics, diagrams, ekphrastic poems, multilingual work, broadsides, erasures, found poems, comics, collages, photography, etc.-not to be showy, but simply because they cannot be expressed in any other way.
is a biannual online journal committed to accessibility and exploring the intersection of poetry and collage.
New Delta Review is an online literary and arts journal produced by graduate students in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Louisiana State University. NDR publishes original fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, reviews, interviews, digital media, and artwork.
Ghost Proposal is a digital journal interested in “work that does not sit comfortably inside genre labels.” It publishes poetry, essays, hybrid, cross-genre, and post-genre work, including mixed media pieces.
Dream Pop Journal is a biannual online literary journal for experimental, non-narrative work. “We are interested in lyric memoirists, cross-genre experimenters, fearless inventors, and poets who dream in made-up languages.”
is an electronic journal of text and art interested in “the labeling and taxonomy of things.” It publishes essays, poetry, reviews, schematics, mixed media, and hybrid work.
WRITING/ART PROMPT
So if you are not already combining an additional form of art with your writing life here are a few WRITING PROMPTS that combine words with another art form
- Take a page out of a discarded magazine, newspaper or pamphlet and circle words you select to create a statement or a poem. Whatever inspires you. Glue the paper on another paper (colored paper works well or thin cardboard). Take a colored felt marker and draw pictures or doodles that associate with your selected words. You can add stickers or further enhance as you like.
- Take a photograph with your phone, alter it to black and white, send it to your computer to print two copies side by side. Decorate one photo with glitter, paint, bits of colored paper and with leave the other image plain or decorate it in a different style. Write a statement, story, or poem about the two images.
- This third prompt takes some technical ability to work with video creation but you can always ask a friend for help. Make a short video and narrate it. Or overlay it with words. Or sing the words.
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RECIPES FROM MY GARDEN- Poetry, Flash CNF and Short Essays (Old Scratch Press Sept. 2024) a great gift to yourself and for friends at $8.95.
Originally published at http://nadjamaril.com on November 4, 2024.
