Roderick Dale McClain// 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.