sculpture

multicolored painting
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Structure: What Writers Can Learn from Visual Artists

ByAnnie Weatherwax

Of all the rules that artists follow, this one is paramount: never ever fill in details before the structure is done. Painters sometimes spend hours sketching before ever touching the canvas. And when they finally do, they build their work slowly, layering in color, laboring on the drawing underneath, roughing in the composition before tightening it…

Abstract canvas art with red, orange, yellow, and blue on canvas. Oil on canvas.

Writing with Abstract Art

ByAnca Szilagyi

In her essay “Art Objects,” Jeanette Winterson challenges readers to experiment with looking at an original work of art (ideally something you like, at least a little) for an entire hour. She supposes that over the course of that hour, one would become increasingly uncomfortable, distracted, and irritated, but also more imaginative: “I can make…