Meaning Making: Mixed Media Artwork Inspired by Poetry

The techniques side of artwork is not only a lot of fun but also relatively easy to teach and relatively easy to learn. However often the question is not how to do artwork but what to do artwork about or why do artwork at all. We are wired as human beings to search for meaning in our lives and so also in our artwork.

I’ve been lucky enough to learn to see in other people’s writing an expression of what I was feeling and then find ways to translate those feelings into my own artwork. I’ve discovered in other words, my own artistic voice in other people’s language. And so in this class we take a look at some of our favorite poets and find there not only inspiration, but motivation, ideas and imagery and a depth of meaning that we might not have found on our own.

Lendon Hamilton Noe is a native of Jackson, Tennessee, where she was a Professor of Art at Lambuth University for 28 years.  She maintains a studio and gallery at DCA/DCPR in Jackson and is partner and instructor with Silver Creek Workshops.  She graduated from Rollins College in Florida, earning the BA in Art and English Literature. She studied in Denver at the Rocky Mountain School of Art and then returned to Tennessee and completed an MS in Art Education at UT Knoxville.  She completed her MFA in Painting and Mixed Media at Vermont College. Noe’s work includes oil painting,original prints, mixed media, and installation.  Her primary media are oil and graphite drawing pencil.  For the last 15 years, her work has been focused on natural history.  Her Tennessee natural history installation won a place in the Nashville Airport Flying Solo exhibition.  She has been an artist-in-residence at the Buffalo National River in Arkansas.