Framing Adjectives and Adverbs

BY ARLENE HARDER, MA, MFT

Today's Take-a-Break is very simple. It comes from an experience I had last year at a conference in Washington, D.C., led by a talented photographer and artist, Claudia Smigrod, who teaches at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. The workshop she led was designed to help us use photographs to creatively express what we see and feel.

In this exercise she gave us about half an hour to walk around the hotel where the workshop was held and take pictures that expressed adjectives and adverbs, each of which was one pair of an opposite. For example, on the list was near and far, up and down, and cold and hot. Then her assistant had the film processed at a one-hour store and we laid the photos on the tables to see how different people expressed those concepts.

I can't remember all the words, but I do recall my amazement that some of the pictures portrayed the meaning of a word in a whole new way. Thus, while I hadn't realized that "Up" was a feeling, some pictures clearly captured the sense of being "Up" and with others I knew the picture was saying "Down."

I tucked the idea into my store of potential Take-a-Breaks and now I'm pulling it out to suggest you take your own set of "pictures." However, in this case you don't have to use a camera (though a digital camera would work great for this Take-a-Break). All you really need are your eyes and an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper. Fold the paper in half and cut or tear a rectangle in the middle of the fold.

When you open it, you will have a frame you can use to look around you, much as a professional photographer like Ansel Adams used a frame to decide what part of the scene in front of him best evoked the feeling he wanted to express. Of course, Ansel Adams then shot the picture with expert care and later manipulated the negative in the darkroom so it would become, in black and white, a marvelous piece of art. But don't worry, you're not being asked to do anything nearly that complex.

For this Take-a-Break all you have to do is hold your paper frame at about arm's length and move it around your field of vision. Then look at the following list of words and see what picture you would take — if you were going to take a picture — that best expresses that word:

Admittedly, some of these are a challenge, but just remember, whether you "take a picture" using the frame and only keep the scene in your mind's eye or decide to use a camera, what you're doing is expressing a feeling, so don't work too hard at this. Simply notice how all around you there are objects and scenes that can give you a sense of something special when you put a "border" around them — so they don't disappear into the ordinary way you see the world.

Also notice whether, without turning your head or going into another room, there is an opposite of one word or feeling that you could capture by moving your frame to the left or right.

Incidentally, the reason this Take-a-Break is listed as a "moderate" stress buster is because, as you've undoubtedly already noticed, you can do as few or as many of the words as you'd like. You can even add new words and take more than one "picture" of an adjective or adverb.

If you do decide to take a real picture, I'd love to have you send it to me if you think conveys a feeling in a special way.

Good luck. Have fun framing adjectives and adverbs.

© Copyright 2004, Arlene Harder, MA, MFT

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