Media through Words
Words carry depth of meaning that images will never match. Through the written word others can delve deeply into what the author knows intimately. We can subsume the human experience through their perception. We can understand what it means to another to be human. Words carry power. They provide connection. They help us contemplate our world.
I help writers write. I help them be more concise. Help them communicate their intended message more effectively. I consult on scripts and books.
I write. Ad copy, marketing, research. When I write, I write to understand beyond the signifier. I write to understand the deeper intent, deeper context. The why and how of the subject.
I help writers write. I help them be more concise. Help them communicate their intended message more effectively. I consult on scripts and books.
I write. Ad copy, marketing, research. When I write, I write to understand beyond the signifier. I write to understand the deeper intent, deeper context. The why and how of the subject.
Writefor your audience. Writewhat you love. Keep it simple. Do not ramble. Only say as much as you need tosay which will add to your character development or storyline. Stick to theroots of your personal language. Use words to say precisely what you intend tosay. These are themantras of writers who write well.
When Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. says that hisexasperation by the English teachers’ compulsion to teach him to write like“cultivated Englishmen of a century or more ago.” is now an understanding oftheir need to teach him how to communicate effectively, he succinctly sums upthe whole crux of the mantras intent. Write to become understandable. Write tobe understood.
bell hooks is a highly regarded writer among artists, arthistorians and general students alike. They are her audience. She writes forthem. Three different types of minds: creative, intellectual and stridentlearners, all find inspiration in her words despite the heft of her subject matter.bell hooks manages to cover the material clearly, concisely and aestheticallyso that all readers from differing audiences find it equally compelling. Itisn’t just a matter of wordsmithing. It is a matter of following the successfulmantras that are evident in a good writers writing.
In “Art Matters” bell hooks demonstratesthose techniques consistently. [1] I expect that her subject matter is an area ofsignificant focus in her love of art because she states so clearly, “Eventhough visual arts fascinated me long before feminist thinking informed mycritical consciousness, it was not until I fully engaged the politics offeminism in conjunction with liberatory black struggle that emphasizeddecolonization of our minds and imagination that I began to recognize theimportance of taking the time to write a body of work addressing art andaesthetics”.
Herlanguage can be both simple when it needs to be simple, “One of the firstpaintings I ever made is hidden in my basement. It was not put there for safekeeping.Damp dank spaces are no place for art work one treasures” and lengthy andconcise when it needs to be, “Blackartists and critics must continually confront an art world so rooted in apolitics of white-supremacistcapitalist patriarchal exclusion thatour relationship to art and aesthetics can be submerged by the effort tochallenge and change this existing structure”.
Herability to express language that demonstrates her unique personal identity is neithercommon nor identifiable within a subset of roots. When she says, “It is alsomaintained by all the rest of us who internalize and enforce the valuesof this regime” she is demonstrating her roots while applying the verbiage ofan intellectual, yet she hasn’t weakened either one.
And, then there are times when, inorder to be precisely understood, she must write very precisely. “Progressivemen who write about art and visual politics and who highlight difference,especially race and gender, must be vigilant in their critical efforts so thatthey do not subsume the voices and ideas of women within a critical rubric thatreinforces male supremacy".
She successfully writes to becomeunderstandable. She writes to be understood.
When Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. says that hisexasperation by the English teachers’ compulsion to teach him to write like“cultivated Englishmen of a century or more ago.” is now an understanding oftheir need to teach him how to communicate effectively, he succinctly sums upthe whole crux of the mantras intent. Write to become understandable. Write tobe understood.
bell hooks is a highly regarded writer among artists, arthistorians and general students alike. They are her audience. She writes forthem. Three different types of minds: creative, intellectual and stridentlearners, all find inspiration in her words despite the heft of her subject matter.bell hooks manages to cover the material clearly, concisely and aestheticallyso that all readers from differing audiences find it equally compelling. Itisn’t just a matter of wordsmithing. It is a matter of following the successfulmantras that are evident in a good writers writing.
In “Art Matters” bell hooks demonstratesthose techniques consistently. [1] I expect that her subject matter is an area ofsignificant focus in her love of art because she states so clearly, “Eventhough visual arts fascinated me long before feminist thinking informed mycritical consciousness, it was not until I fully engaged the politics offeminism in conjunction with liberatory black struggle that emphasizeddecolonization of our minds and imagination that I began to recognize theimportance of taking the time to write a body of work addressing art andaesthetics”.
Herlanguage can be both simple when it needs to be simple, “One of the firstpaintings I ever made is hidden in my basement. It was not put there for safekeeping.Damp dank spaces are no place for art work one treasures” and lengthy andconcise when it needs to be, “Blackartists and critics must continually confront an art world so rooted in apolitics of white-supremacistcapitalist patriarchal exclusion thatour relationship to art and aesthetics can be submerged by the effort tochallenge and change this existing structure”.
Herability to express language that demonstrates her unique personal identity is neithercommon nor identifiable within a subset of roots. When she says, “It is alsomaintained by all the rest of us who internalize and enforce the valuesof this regime” she is demonstrating her roots while applying the verbiage ofan intellectual, yet she hasn’t weakened either one.
And, then there are times when, inorder to be precisely understood, she must write very precisely. “Progressivemen who write about art and visual politics and who highlight difference,especially race and gender, must be vigilant in their critical efforts so thatthey do not subsume the voices and ideas of women within a critical rubric thatreinforces male supremacy".
She successfully writes to becomeunderstandable. She writes to be understood.
I am Sybil.
I have been since I was nearly two years old.
It was then that I broke into pieces and began to fight against the many sides of me.
Leg—work. Do as I say
It ignores my admonitions.
Hand—write. Be strong
It weakens despite my insistence.
Mind—be solid. Be clear
It jumbles, confuses, tires upon me.
Soul—dream. Be hopeful
It crashes, crushes down upon itself.
I’ve become obsessed with the fluctuating degradation of my body.
I am conscious of the losses and gains of various limbs, portions of limbs, muscles, tendons, nerves. Emptiness and pain, loss of control…
