About the Workshop

What stories have you been telling? And how have you been telling them? And how do you want to tell them in the future?

In this generative workshop we’ll explore visual narrative techniques. This workshop will take the discrete disciplines of drawing and fiction and explore ways of connecting both disciplines while maintaining the integrity of both. How are stories told visually? How are stories told textually? Beyond the field of comics and narrative graphic art, how can we take two autonomous methods and meld them in new ways without losing the rigor and intention of each? Together we’ll explore what constitutes narrative and how drawing can be explored in new ways to represent your stories and aspirations for representing ourselves, our histories, and our desires.

Writers and artists are both encouraged to attend this workshop. Workshop participants will be encouraged to explore narrative either textually or representationally, expanding the ways existing stories are told. Workshop participants will be encouraged to work from methods they currently use or would like to explore (drawing, painting, illustration, poetry, creative non-fiction, etc.), and to build from their existing strengths and explore the narrative possibilities within them.

About the Instructor

Carlos Francisco Jackson is an artist and writer who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since July of 2022 he has served as Dean and Professor of the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan. Carlos is a printmaker and painter, primarily specializing in screenprinting with a broad curatorial and writing practice that engages the field of Chicano Art. Prior to July of 2022 he was on the faculty at the University of California, Davis where he co-founded Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, a community-based workshop in Woodland, California.