Don’t Make Me Do This

When I asked my friend and fellow writer, Rod McClain, to explore

the relationship between writing and visual art, I should have known that he wouldn’t send me the draft of commentary or some kind of long-winded musing on the visual qualities of narrative.

I met Rod last summer when he and I taught together at a writing camp for high school students. Spending a week in a creative environment with Rod is like a crash course on the acrobatics of language and the economy of facial expression. He is an artist in the most genuine sense of the word: Watching him interact with the students is what I imagine it would be like to watch Jane Goodall work–he never missed a beat.

The following pieces are Rod’s commentary on the relationship between writing and visual art. As much as I enjoy writing, I am no stranger to that deep-seeded, abysmal frustration that comes along with it and sits beside me in a dirty, velvet, turquiose La-z-Boy.