Still Life with objects...| Advanced variation #1 |Advanced variation #2

“Still life” with objects painted with (or seen through) two distinct or contrasting emotions.
[updated 01/19/2004]

Rule #1: Write what first comes to mind. Don’t think about this hard. Just read the guidelines and dive in.

Rule #2: Do not stop writing until you are done, and do not pause to think, either.

Rule #3: You may find your subject(s) in the midst of writing and change directions!

Guidelines:
You must use ALL the objects in the still life. You can give the objects any story (or stories) that you like. You can even give them consciousness and their own lives, or you can make them all essential (or incidental) parts of one life or a scene in someone’s life.

You MUST use two distinct or contrasting feelings, and you MUST paint (or associate) the objects with one of the feelings. For example, you can use two related emotions such as happiness and acceptance, anger and sorrow, lust and jealousy, euphoria and peacefulness. Or you could use two contrasting emotions such as panic and tranquility, depression and elation etc.

(Advice: don’t force yourself to use emotions that are out of reach— use whatever is handy!)
Do NOT name the emotions (these should be or become self-evident).

Start writing!

Advanced variation #1 of still life with objects painted with (or seen through) two distinct or contrasting emotions.

At home, start with several objects that already have significance for you. Lay them out in a place where you (and they) will be undisturbed. Think about each of the objects in turn, but do not start writing until you are ready to write about all of them. Take as much time as you need, but (again) do NOT stop writing to “gather your thoughts” or “reflect.” Let the writing be the gathering; let the writing be the reflecting. The goal is to end up with interesting, rich raw material, not a finished draft.

Then follow the other applicable directions for the regular still life with two distinct or contrasting emotions.

[Advice: try to avoid obvious symbolic or emotionally-charged objects such as rings, prom dresses, axes, guns, red shoes, roses, dead roses etc. Rule of thumb: if your object tends to get its own theme music when it appears in made-for-TV movies, films or other shows, it is probably too obvious. If you MUST use such an object, try to elude, evade, subvert or parody all the clichés that are associated with it. For example, once I had a student who wrote a plaint from the perspective of Barbie and Ken dolls. She made some funny observations about Ken’s genderless body.]

Advanced variation #2 of still life with objects painted with emotion.

Start with an emotion (or two) and then use the objects to create the feeling. Never actually say the emotion (or any emotion) during the writing process. Gather real objects and really look at them, or use objects gathered up already.