By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
From fantasy to mental health issues to fond memories of fishing with grandfather, the first cohort of students participating in the word and image program at BGSU shared their work Saturday (April 23).
About dozen students set up at tables at Grounds for Thought with their work free to see, and opened themselves up to answer questions from whomever stopped by to chat.
Lizzie Cox had the drafts of three children’s books she was working on in front of her.
Two of them are based on her life experience. One, “A Real Princess,” was drawn from lessons her father taught her. Being humble, she said, was being a “real princess.”
The other was about fishing with her grandfather, who died recently. The book is her way of remembering him, Cox said. “It doesn’t matter if you catch anything as long as you have fun.”
A junior majoring in digital arts, she already had plenty of credits to complete her major, but decided to take the word and image course because it “would be a perfect way to learn about the industry and the terminology and the professional world.”
The course taught her “how to format and frame everything and how to make a story coherent with a limited amount of images, and balancing word and image in the story.”
Amanda McGuire Rzicznek, from the Department of English who teaches word and, said the new minor is a collaboration between the Department of English and the School of Art. “It’s really focused on storytelling, and what that means in terms of written text but also visual text.”
Rzicznek had already taught a Children’s Literature courses in the College of Education and Human Development.
In its first year, the word and image minor enrolled a dozen students, and expects to double that next year, said Jessica Zinz-Cheresnick, director of undergraduate creative writing. Discussions are underway about developing a word and image major.
“The collaboration between art in English is very natural,” Rzicznek said.
The minor is open to students majoring all disciplines, biology, nursing, art education among them.
“Creative writing and art are merging. We’re seeing this happen in culture with the popularity of graphic novel, the popularity of video games,” she said. “You need to have experience in both realms, not just art, not just creative writing, but seeing how they merge.”
Zander Dryer is about to graduate as a digital arts major. Pairing text with his art “is a new thing for me,” he said. He was also taking a typography course. “Having those two things in tandem has been a wake-up call for me especially when it comes to telling a story and designing text.”
He wishes he’d had the chance to take the minor during his time at BGSU. “That would have been so great.”
Morgan Lang is completing her first year as a digital art major. She displayed a series of minicomics about two dragons. She also had stickers.
She didn’t expect to take the word and image class, but she had a gap in her class schedule so she signed up for Rzicznek’s course.
“I never really considered it, but after going through the process I really fell in love with it,” Lang said. “After this course, I’m looking into the possibility of creating my own digital art- based content.”
