The man -- grandson of Sigmund -- may not have had the name recognition as a Rembrandt, a Gauguin or a Warhol but he was a prolific portraitist who created dynamic often strange paintings of an entire range of bodies and faces. I was immediately smitten with his stuff when I went to see a London retrospective of his work in 2003. And a copy of his REFLECTION WITH TWO CHILDREN hangs in my classroom at school. Or used to hang -- recently, my co-teacher told me the painting intimidating students so it's now in my office.
It's a self-portrait with images of his son and daughter in the lower left corner. He painted it by looking at his reflection in a mirror on the ground. Every year, I use the painting in my creative writing class to ask students what makes a narrative. The assignment: create a first line of a story based on the painting. The kids love the exercise and their responses have been fantastic.
A few examples:
They had no idea what their father would say when he came home to find the dead dog.
The appointment was at 3.
When he showed up in formal wear, they knew they were in a heap of trouble.
The point of the exercise is to challenge students to see a story in everything -- painting, photograph, sculpture, poem, a song, etc. If it suggest conflict, it's a story. Each of the first lines above, and most of the sentences provoked by the exercise, immediately create tension. And it's conflict and tension that set a narrative in motion
Yes, sometimes your imagination must collaborate with the painter in order to get the story started but interpretation (of any given narrative) always requires a creative kick-start.
Certainly there's a story in Géricault's RAFT OF THE MEDUSA.
But is there one here, in Grant Wood's AMERICAN GOTHIC?
There's tension here. What is the woman looking at? Why isn't she, like her husband, looking forward? And look closely at the man. He's also looking to the side. What's going on outside the frame of the painting? And if there's tension, there's story. Yes, we must assume, but I think the mere presence of questions provides the start of a narrative.
That's one of the wonderful things about stories -- they're everywhere.
so true ive alwasy wondered that too . what was grant Wood thinking when he did this magnificent painting, its kinda weird that she is looking to the side (; but also creepy mabie there is a supernatural ghost in the back ground mabie its her lover and she didnt want her husband to see ! mabie its a naked guy running in the feild of flowers ! oh no the ghost has me ksrfhiasdfagh' awr'yhnsruow'ayh'erghruoghawrr. signed your dearest Friend . (:
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