VISUAL AND LITERARY ART COMMUNICATE

Stephen O’Donnell and his wife, Gigi Little, were the hosts for the Mouths of Others speaker event on May 8 at MHCC, titled “The Untold Gaze.”

The husband-wife team began working on this 160-page book of the same name about five years ago. In it, they turn 33 paintings over to various writers, who produced original, creative narratives inspired by the pieces.

O’Donnell told the audience in the Visual Arts Theatre that the goal in creating this work was to “take visual art and literary art, and find a way to communicate it with each other.” 

He said pair first approached nonfiction writers, “but we didn’t feel there was a way to tie that in. We asked fiction writers and poets who might respond if they would like to play, and I think everyone said ‘Yes.’ ”

O’Donnell comes from an artistic background, and with Little having a graphic design-illustration background, the two create a dynamic duo.

The more than 30 different writers for the paintings were instructed by O’Donnell: “Do whatever you want to do, respond however. If you see some color and you want to go with that, if that’s the prompt for the story that you want to come up with, fine.”

And, looking at the content of the book, it’s clear that that’s what they did. The book shows beautiful, detailed illustrations that makes your mind see a different passion through each of the paintings.

That came through even more when some of the authors who attended the event gave live readings of their stories on stage.

Little explained to the Mt. Hood crowd how difficult it was to put the book together.

“It was hard because you don’t want three similar kinds of paintings together, and all the stories about children together,” she said. “You also don’t want all the funny stuff over here and the sad stuff over here, or the really sad one next to the really funny one.”

The next Mouths of Others guest appearance, sponsored by the Mt. Hood humanities department, May 29. Astoria-based writer Diana Kirk will read from her collection of essays, “Licking Flames,” a series of essays about growing up and facing adulthood, described as “raw, unfiltered stories told with compassion and wit.”

Bad weather forced cancellation of Kirk’s scheduled visit earlier this year.