AT HOME ART DATE | watch research visualize
Bernardine Evaristo is a British scholar and author. Girl, Woman, Other, her ninth novel, received the Booker Prize in 2019. She became the first woman of color and the first black British writer to reach number one in the UK paperback fiction rankings in June 2020. She is co-curating a new book series, "Black Britain: Writing Back," with Hamish Hamilton, in which she will bring back into print and circulation works from the past. In the Queen's 2009 Birthday Honours, she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and in the Queen's 2020 Birthday Honours, she was made an Officer of the Orders of the Empire (OBE).
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This AT HOME ART DATE is a chance for you to map your story.
(element one) WATCH this short course from Vogue Visionaries featuring Evaristo here.
(element two) RESEARCH to find yourself in fiction. Evaristo talks about looking for herself in novels and not finding herself. That is what got her writing. You will do the same. Choose your ethnic heritage, gender, and where you have lived. Do an internet search. For example, my ethnic heritage is Irish. So, if I search “Irish Woman” and then search NEWS, I find several stories and one catches my eye.
“21-year-old Irish woman calls for change after terrifying stalking ordeal.”
Now, I will read the entire article and put myself in the story making it half fiction and half non-fiction. What if I were stalked? What would that look like? Where would this happen? What if I were the stalker?
(element three) VISUALIZE the world of your story. Using whatever art supplies you have available, draw a map of where your story takes place. It can be a map of a country, a city, a neighborhood, or of a block. Let the map be both fiction and non-fiction. The key is to be sure you see a version of yourself in the world of the map. Let the map live in a desk drawer for a few months and then get it out and write that story.
How does it feel to create the starter of a story through cartography?
If you resist doing this at home art date, do it anyway.
If you seek perfection, you will never reach completion.
Finished? Congratulations. Well done, artist!
Please share your map with friends. Even share it on social media! Try always to share your art.
I hope you find Bernardine Evaristo + Your Map to be a compelling AT HOME ART DATE.
I curate provocative AT HOME ART DATES for you to enjoy solo or with others in your own home. Many of these art dates have online elements combined with supplemental reading, listening, and a variety of activities you can do at home to enhance how you express and experience art. Feel free to forward these art dates to others. Remember to check out the bonus material below.
These AT HOME ART DATES are free of charge. However, they do take time, energy, and a lifetime of artistic experience to put together. If you’d like to buy me a cup of tea as a bit of thanks, I’d appreciate your generosity. Buy Pattie a Cup of Tea.
Yours,
Pattie
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