OCSA’s annual Painted Word event is a collaborative effort between the Visual Art and Creative Writing Departments that will be held in the Media Center today. The evening has Visual Artists present their artwork alongside poems crafted by the Creative Writing Department.  A total of 20 pieces have been selected for the evening.

Mrs. Calderon, the head of the Visual Arts Department, commented that Painted Word gives students “the freedom to choose pieces, because it is entirely voluntary” and also allows the more introverted artists within each program a chance to stand out. “In this age, it’s a great way for people to meet socially instead of hidden behind a screen,” she added

A majority of this year’s selected pieces are poems submitted by middle school Creative Writing students. However, many High School Creative Writers believe that this is the result of a technical snafu. When the files were made available for the Visual Artists, the High School Creative Writing pieces were in a separate, hidden folder. This meant that the reason the majority of the selected pieces originating from the middle school population was not inherently based on the quality of the poems. Mrs. Calderon, however, said that her students knew about both folders. Traditionally, more high school students are chosen for Painted Word than middle school students.

Last year, we broke the mold of Painted Word by having the visual artists create their pieces and the writers wrote complementary pieces. We have reverted to the methods of previous years, with the writers crafting poems and the visual artists creating paintings inspired by said poems. In the words of Mrs. Calderon, “Just like in visual art, there are many interpretations for artwork, but seeing if we can interpret the poetry correctly is an amazing thing.”

The event begins at 6 pm, but doors open at 5:30 pm. Come listen to the words of our Creative Writers and view the work of our Visual Artists!