Mine Eyes Have Seen…

I suppose it’s ironic that, as a writer, I have an extreme appreciation for the visual.  Probably because it remains just out of reach of what I can create with words.  A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a thousand, million, trillion words can never really create a picture.  Never.  

There’s a certain beauty in that shortcoming.  Readers take their own brush to the voids.  They fill in the empty spaces, nuancing color and light throught the filters of their own experience and imagination. Shadows fall on the scenes behind their eyelids in places they will fall for no one else who reads the book.  When they close the book, the images they’ve stored with it may fade.  Or change.  Someone will dig them out in a conversation later, and they’ll be rearranged, sanded.  Some characters will become more attractive.  Some will be harder to look at.  Perhaps one player they knew only by faint sillouhette, standing far in the background, will emerge to the forefront, taking on new importance.  They’ll paint and repaint, until what the author saw when she first tried to capture the image in simple words doesn’t matter anymore.  If it ever did. 

This past winter, I met with my friend Melissa Worthington, and discussed what I “saw” on the pages of Trespassers.  She wanted to record it visually, before the visions of all who read it when it went to print became superimposed over the top.  The pictures you see scattered over the website are the product of her efforts.  And if I do say so, Mel nailed it.  (I used this phrase unabashedly, even though for all manner of reasons, good Christians aren’t supposed to enjoy nailing things.)

I will write more about why we selected the locations we did in another post.  For now, I just want to pay tribute to Mel Worthington and her amazing work.

Yes, she does weddings.
She does babies.
She does cemeteries in February with crazy author ladies who have “visions” of how their work should look on camera.

And for just one more example of how she brings visions to life, check out her latest blog post on her wonderful work with the Art 180 program.

 

 

 

 

     

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