Have paint and brush – now what?
If, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, then we should be able to write for pages and pages about the significance of one photograph or painting. I could write all about the dust that had accumulated at my brother-in-law’s apartment, and how it had been unnoticed while untouched, but 
within moments of my daughter’s entry to the apartment, she simultaneously exposed the dust’s presence and announced that life and a new vitality had entered the room. Or, instead of writing all that, I could show you the photo I took after she did it.
Art work is intentional, and just as Edgar Allan Poe creates a particular mood for his text through setting and characters and plot, a painter or photographer attempts to capture a particular mood in her work. As you know, my assignment for you after reading Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is to evaluate how the story’s mood matches the mood of the paintings inserted into the textbook’s section on Poe.
What I would like you to do before jumping into that assignment is consider how painters convey mood. If writers utilize the tools of character, plot, setting, and point of view, what tools do painters use? To simplify your thoughts, I would encourage you to focus on painters rather than photographers, but if you feel you have something to say that applies to photography as well as painting, feel free to draw photography into your discussion.
Please answer the question in a thoughtful 7-10 sentence blog article. After 15 minutes I will ask you to post it and then peruse your classmates’ articles. After discovering what some of them say, I’ll have you return to your original article and add a paragraph describing what insight you gained from another student. I will show you how to post a link to their blog, and that will be required this time.
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