Introduction
This book represents the second edition of collaborative work between English language learners (ELL) and art students at Lake Washington Institute of Technology. The first edition of this book has become part of the library collection of books for ELL students. I am grateful for the willingness of ELL and art faculty to continue to pursue this project with me. We are always looking to represent our community as closely as possible with our library collections. I am honored to bring direct representation from the voices or our students, in word and image. I am inspired by the depth of experience and vulnerability shared by students as they offer these personal experiences to our community of belonging.
The ELL instructors developed writing assignments with themes of a person they admire as well as their neighborhoods. Art students in drawing classes were each assigned a story from this project and created a drawing with their own interpretation of the stories. The collaboration is an exercise in cultural humility in both the willingness of students to share their stories, as well as the interpretation and expression of the stories as drawings by the art students. Students learned about licensing permissions and agreed to share their work to be part of this collaborative project and library book. Student work was produced during 2021-2022 academic year. The physical book will be found in the LWTech library, while the ebook version is available to anyone as an open source publication.
Many thanks to ELL Faculty Kelly Cover-Tam, Anna Podnozova, and Karyna Tytar, as well as Art Faculty Amber Chiozza for their willingness to work with me and share student work. Special thanks to Oscar Baechler for creating the artwork for 7 stories where we were short on artists.
Sue Wozniak, Librarian
Faculty Librarian Sue Wozniak reached out to me about having LWTech students create a visual response to creative writings created by the English Language Learning students. My students in ART 121 Introduction to Drawing created either direct illustrations to the stories, or created their own interpretation based on their own experiences and feelings. Students from my Fall 2021 course created more direct illustrations for their final projects, utilizing concepts that they learned throughout the quarter such as linear perspective or value structures. Students from Winter 2022 had less of a drawing foundation, and they chose some abstract artists as inspiration for creating more expressive responses to the stories using pattern, line quality and mark-making. Visual art and writing share a creative cord, being both subjective and personal. It was a pleasure to watch one student create written works and see how other students could translate that into something visual. This type of collaboration, written works to visual works and vice versa, is a long standing tradition through creative humanity, and I’m glad to see Lake Washington Institute of Technology integrating this type of collaboration onto our campus, proving that there are infinite ways to connect with each other as people.
Amber Chiozza, Art Instructor
