2010 Courses

Writing classes combine general instruction and discussion with the workshop experience, in which each individual’s works are read and discussed critically. In the visual arts classes, students will create new work throughout the week, while also receiving individual and general instruction.

For those seeking a non-workshop class, we offer a seminar called "Creativity from the Margins: Imagination for Christians Out of Control In North America" led by Rodney Clapp, a forum to explore the workshop theme in more depth through discussion and in-class creativity. The theme for the week, “Creativity from the Margins: Art As Witness,” will provide a focal point for discussion.

The Glen also offers a retreat option for those who wish to join us for meals, readings, and worship, but prefer to spend mornings writing, painting, exploring the area, or in contemplation, instead of attending a class. Like its sponsor, Image, the Glen is grounded in a Christian perspective, but its tone is informal and hospitable to all spiritual wayfarers.

Seminar

Rodney Clapp

Creativity from the Margins: Imagination for Christians Out of Control In North America.

As already in most of Europe, the vestiges of Christendom are giving way to pluralism. Christian convictions are less and less dominant over national cultures as a whole. Though many lament this loss of control, this seminar will explore expanding artistic possibilities as the church and its practices are seemingly pushed to the margins. Often he most exciting artists, after all, are those who see the world through a minority’s perspective. This seminar will explore the suggestion that cultural and creative power may increase even as legislative or governmental power decreases. Construing artistry broadly, we will consider how biblical prophets were performance artists and Jesus’ parables were poetry that rendered the familiar in unfamiliar and transforming ways. We will draw on other exemplars, past and present, to tease out a working theology of creativity from the margins. Inviting participation, the seminar will range across both the creative arts (including fiction, film, theater, poetry, music, and performance art) and the practical arts (such as gardening, cooking, and hospitality).

Poetry

B.H. Fairchild

This will be the usual sort of poetry workshop. Close attention will be given to the work of each participant, and constructive critical comments will be offered by both the workshop members and myself. I am especially interested in workshop commentary that not only will address specific problems but also will shed light on larger craft issues. Please submit 5 poems by email by July 1 to image@imagejournal.org. You will be sent your classmates’ manuscripts by email, to print, read in advance, and bring with you to the workshop.

Collage

Mary McCleary

Collage is currently in waitlist status (See here for our waitlist policies)
Of all 2-D media, collage offers the artist the most direct response to the physical world. Through the selection and juxtaposition of materials, an artist can celebrate the visible world, while at the same time suggesting multiple layers of meaning beyond the temporal. Workshop participants will be encouraged to develop a personal approach to collage by exploring historic and contemporary expressions found in both fine and vernacular arts. Some of the issues to be considered include transience/permanence, simplicity/complexity, chance/control, recycling, text and image, layering, and connections. The class will be appropriate for both beginning and advanced students. There is a $30 lab fee for this workshop. Click here for a materials list.

Life Drawing

Barry Moser

Drawing from life, both human and other forms, and copying the masters have been twin modes of learning how to draw (and how to draw better) for centuries. In this class we will do both. Using very simple and limited media—pencil, markers and the like—we will focus on life studies, from a simple egg to the full nude human form. In doing so we will study the figure work of the Old Masters (Rembrandt, Velasquez, etc.), tracing and copying their drawings as a means to finding our own way to understanding how to draw the figure—or the egg. No previous experience is necessary or required. There is a $20 lab fee for this workshop. Please see the  materials list for what to bring.

Poetry

Marilyn Nelson

We will read and discuss your poems in depth during our workshop, offering constructive suggestions that we hope will lead to your re-visioning of the poem. We may consider a few poems by contemporary poets, seeking insight on matters of craft. Please submit 4-5 poems of short to moderate length by e-mail by July 1 to image@imagejournal.org. You will be sent all of the workshop manuscripts by e-mail to print and bring with you to the workshop. Additional handouts will be provided.

Film Seminar

Jeffrey Overstreet

Beyond Blockbusters: Entering the Mind of Contemplative Cinema

Most commercial American movies seem like illustrated storybooks. To appreciate many of the greatest filmmakers, a moviegoer must examine more than the narrative. In this workshop, we'll consider the movies and methods of master filmmakers who are influential and distinct in their contemplative style. These may include Krzysztof Kieslowski (Poland), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Taiwan), Carl Dreyer (Denmark), Terrence Malick (U.S.A.), Yasujiro Ozu (China), Wim Wenders (Germany), Andrei Tarkovsky (Russia), Michael Haneke (Austria), and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium). We'll also see how their influence is evident in the work of rising international stars like Olivier Assayas, Carlos Reygadas, Andrei Zvyagintsev, Jia Zhang Ke, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and Jeff Nichols. We'll read and discuss critical interpretations, reviews, and interviews, and we'll share "next-day reflections" based on journal entries composed after each viewing. Guides to excellent resources for further exploration in print and online will be provided. Optional: A "head-start" movie list will be provided for those who want to see some of those we'll discuss.

Songwriting

Over the Rhine

Musicians and music lovers of varying backgrounds and proficiency are welcome to participate in the songwriting workshop. (Participants are not obligated to sing or perform.) If you are interested in performing at the workshop, please submit three original songs, preferably recent works, to image@imagejournal.org by June 1 to help the instructors prepare for class. Simple, sparse recordings are welcome. Workshop participants will be invited to perform acoustic versions of their material at the workshop (at the piano or with acoustic guitar). The rest of us will listen, discuss, and possibly help rework the songs presented. We will strive for camaraderie, laughter, and the occasional surprising insight. Along with discussions of the songs presented, we will listen to recordings of notable songwriters of the last 100 years, and explore a wide range of topics related to music and words, writing and creativity, recording and performing. We will also attempt to do some songwriting and collaborating throughout the course of the week. There is a $30 lab fee for this workshop.

Fiction

Melissa Pritchard

Writing fiction begins with passion, inspiration, and ends in discipline, an almost cold, mathematical objectivity. Writing a story is a layered process, and the most powerful stories often are scaffolded, held together by an uncreeded theology, by a haunting, perhaps unanswerable, ethical question. Our workshop will de-mythicize the process of story writing and explore questions of both faith and ethics as profoundly crucial, if understated, parts of a story’s structure. Each participant will submit one short story or novel excerpt in draft form (no more than 5,000 words,) for group discussion. We will examine options for revision, find fresh questions to ask ourselves to tease out each story’s authentic ethical and spiritual power. We will read published stories in order to have a common base of discussion, using them as templates for study. (details to come) Please submit your draft story or novel excerpt by email as a Word attachment to image@imagejournal.org by July 1. You will receive all manuscripts by e-mail, to print out, read in advance, and bring with you to workshop.

Portrait Painting

Joel Sheesley

"The countenance is both physical and spiritual." So says Wendell Berry in his essay, “Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community.” In this workshop we will focus on the human face as the resource for representation of the human spirit. This will be a portrait painting in oils demonstration and workshop. We will paint one portrait based on live observation of the model. The class is open to artists of all levels, but those with oil painting experience will benefit most. Click here for a list of materials to bring.

Spiritual Writing

Lauren F. Winner

Spiritual Writing is currently in waitlist status (See here for our waitlist policies)
St. Augustine, Martin Buber, Henri Nouwen, Anne Lamott: four different writers with different audiences, different voices, different goals. Still, all four can be said to participate in that capacious genre we call “spiritual writing.” In this class, we will work toward mastering technique, from dialogue to pacing, always keeping an eye on the larger questions of the genre—what is spiritual writing, what are its ethics and mores, what literary forms are best suited to telling spiritual tales, how does doing spiritual writing do work on our spiritual lives? Workshopping each other’s pieces is the center of this class, so please submit ten to twenty double-spaced pages by email  to image@imagejournal.org no later than July 1. (NB: There is, of course, plenty of spiritual poetry and fiction, but we’ll stick to nonfiction prose in this class.) You will be sent your classmates’ manuscripts by email, to print, read in advance, and bring with you to the workshop. We will also study samples of contemporary spiritual writing.

Play & Screenwriting Workshop

Bradford Winters

Story, story, story. Not the plot-minded mechanics of your average popcorn delivery device (as hard as those can be to write in their own right), but story as the symbiotic warp to the woof of character, the relentless means to a happy or unhappy end. Whether you are a seasoned dramatic writer looking to solve the problems that stymie a work-in-progress, or an inspired novice with an idea in one hand and a blank page in the other, the same basic questions apply: what is your story? does it stay true to character every step of the way? does character, conversely, stay true to it? These and other foundational matters will guide our discussion of each other’s work in a constructive context, as well as shape class exercises that illuminate the principles of the dramatic craft. If you have a work-in-progress, or merely the notional makings of a work-to-come, please submit it and/or a brief précis in prose that gives a summary of the project as well as states the issues you hope to explore in class. Email this to image@imagejournal.org by July 1st. If your sole ambition is to come and learn a thing or two without any product in mind, please submit a statement of your goals for the week.

The Glen Workshop is held in collaboration with
Christians in the Visual Arts and Christians in the Theatre Arts

For more information, please write to:
Image, 3307 Third Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119.
Phone: (206) 281-2988. Or send us an e-mail.