VSC 6: Tonal

January 26, 2010

The last resident reading was Sunday night and I read the opening of my book. I was the first reader of the night and got to show several slides from my research–documents, photos that inform my work. It was a great night, with very positive response from the audience. Very uplifting.

I shared the night with 4 other terrific writer residents: Phil, Louisa, Karen, and Anya. Phil and Anya also showed slides (actually Anya, a writer and performance artist, showed video).

Phil put up this photo of photographer Edward Steichen, which I found incredibly beautiful, it’s called Rodin the Thinker (Rodin Le Penseur 1902). Steichen was known for his “tonal, mood-filled, and mysterious canvases that were praised for their lyrical qualities.”

Furthermore, “he was associated with a style of photography known as Pictorialism. The Pictorialists felt that the aesthetic promise of photography lay in an emulation of painting. Steichen’s early work, then, adopted many Pictorialist techniques (a jiggled tripod, a lens bathed in glycerin, or various darkroom tricks) designed to produce “painterly” soft-focus effects. During this period, Steichen was also a painter, until he burned all his canvases in 1922.” [!!!!!<-- ed.]

I didn’t realize that  I had already seen Steichen’s works in these well known celebrity portraits of Garbo and Gloria Swanson.

Gorgeous.

The visiting writer, Leni Zumas, was a total gem. I met with her on Saturday morning and found her completely engaged and engaging; I felt as if she really understood my project, had really read the sample I sent her closely and thoughtfully and she had very clear specific feedback for me. During this residency i’ve been trying to focus on language–especially the voices of the characters and Leni honed in on that. After reading her story collection,  Farewell Navigator, I can see why: I want to call her prose ’spare’ but I don’t know if that’s the right word. Because it isn’t really spare. The sentences are sharp and strange but also bold and beautiful, eerie (reminiscent of Mark Richard, one of my faves). Her turns of phrase are fresh and odd and stunning: “…the space between her eyes.”  “I am the leaver, the taker, the bringer.” “…the walls are wet on my palm.”

When she gave her craft talk we did the most inspiring writing activity involving words–new, bizarre, obscure words and phrases that then went on to spark ideas and more dazzling words from us. I hope she doesn’t mind but i’m going to use that activity in my own classes.

And though the week is not over yet (still have until Thursday–I leave VSC on Friday morning), this has been a perfect last week.