Write in the Art Galleries

The Washington Public Library is fortunate to house two art galleries, several other art display spaces, as well as hold a permanent collection of local art. If you have never walked the whole library from main level to second level to lower level, you are missing out! We pride ourselves on being a community and cultural center of Washington and therefore, we want to foster your opportunities to enjoy and appreciate art. This month and every month on the 15th we will now be hosting a "Write in the Gallery" day. You are invited to bring your journals or laptops, sign in at the front desk, and plop yourself into a comfy chair in front of any of the pieces of art on display. Spend some time studying and writing your thoughts on what you see.

There is actually a name for writing about artwork; it is called ekphrastic writing. The term comes from the Greek ek (“out”) and phrasis (“speak”), meaning “to speak out.” Poetry has often been written about art, but you can write in any genre. Most famously John Keats wrote an ekphrastic poem entitled "Ode on a Grecian Urn" which is a reflections on the scenes he saw on a very old urn. William Carlos Williams wrote a piece called "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" after studying a painting by Pieter Bruegel.

The members of the Washington Writers' Workshop have also experimented with this sort of writing. A few years ago they were given a tour of the library's permanent pieces and then picked a piece to write about. John Greener chose the painting by Carlton Bump called "April in a Blue Hat" and created the following poem:

Woman in a Blue Hat by John Greener

The Bendix is gone,

I know the sound.

The tractor won't run without it.

It will be God's good time

To find another, if he can.

A used part is more expensive

Than new used to be-

Can we mortgage the crop

One more time?

If the rain comes too late,

It will make no difference.

Like our land,

I am used up

Tired to the bone.

If the rain is too much, too early

We will wash away.

If it is too late,

Our land will blow away

And the Bendix will make no difference.

He will be home soon-

He is a good man

Defeated by hard times.

I must haul out my pretty face once again

To greet him.

Come by the Washington Library between 8 a.m. — 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 and "Write in the Gallery" with us. We would love to see the art appreciated and to read your pieces!