NARRATIVE

The section on narrative provided insight about one of the first forms of storytelling, visual storytelling. When considering the most famous monuments and buildings throughout history, they often are decorated in narratives, whether that be through a carving, painting, or even the work of a cave man. The beauty of a visual narrative is that multiple perspectives can be gained and many stories told all within one image. Moaccio's "The Tribute Money" can provide great insight to the viewer who before seeing the image had no knowledge of the biblical story.

Narrative is a powerful idea that I often use in my own illustrations, paintings and other works of art. I have long enjoyed telling stories with pictures and I think that a variety of mediums can be used to achieve telling a great story. I think it would be wonderful to do an entire narrative unit with your students where they would have opportunities to explore different ways to share stories: carving or designing a Roman column, creating a large-scale painting, creating a stop-motion video, cartooning, illustration, the list goes on and on. These are the kinds of authentic experiences I want for my students to have and I like to experiment with in my own work.

Although the second paragraph is supposed to focus on intertwining the idea within our own art, how neat would it be to print giant columns and glue them to cardboard, then having each student "write" (create) their own personal narrative on the column?! It would also coordinate well with a history or literature class.