Slice of Life Story Challenge

Slice of Life Tuesday

Stacey Shubitz
Write. Share. Give.

Last spring, my family and I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). I wanted to spend some solo time perusing the Impressionism Gallery while my husband monitored our kids. On the gallery wall, I came across an overview of Impressionism that made me think of slice of life writing. The placard said:

With pure, unmixed colors, visible brushstrokes, and roughly sculpted surfaces, these works sometimes left audiences wondering if they were made as sketches (“impressions”) for subsequent, more polished pieces. The artists matched their innovative techniques with unconventional subjects. A view of a bustling city street, an informal portrait of a child, or a study of the momentary effects of lifght and weather on a landscape became vehicles for transofrming how the art of their time looked and was made.

PMA

Slice of life writing is a bit like an impressionist painting, right? Most of what we write is first-draft writing. We capture the everyday, ordinary, and mundane… then we transform our thoughts, wonders, and noticings into honest and spirited writing.

Here are some photos I took from my visit to the PMA. I hope you find the beauty, and perhaps some inspiration to write, when you scan through these works of art.

Published by Stacey Shubitz

I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.

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