Arts & Crafts 101 - Turning Poetry into Art

Poetry is an art form in writing, but there are ways that you can turn it into visual art as well to expand the audience for your work.

Many of us love to write poetry. It's a way to express ourselves, and it's a form of written art. However, poetry can be hard to sell and hard to get out into the public eye. By turning your poetry into visual art you can gain exposure for your work and draw in a whole new audience.

Using Traditional Media

If you have skill in traditional art forms like drawing or painting, you can create images and add your words to them. You can add your poetry either directly to the art itself, or as an attachment that will be sold with the piece. If you can paint calligraphy or other artistic lettering, the poem itself can be the art.

Using Digital Media

If you can't paint or draw, you can go digital instead. You'll have the ability to choose from any artistic font you please. You'll also be able to add backgrounds and other visual enhancements to the piece. The sky is the limit. There are even many sites online that provide artistic backgrounds free of charge for commercial use. These sites are an excellent resource if you can't create your own art.

Selling the Work

Once you have turned your poetry into art, the next step is selling it. For paintings and drawings you can sell on art sites, at art shows or other traditional venues. If you've gone digital you can sell your work on art sites or POD sites.

POD sites (Print On Demand) like Zazzle are a good place to sell your art. You can place your work on prints, cards and other paper goods, or even shirts and coffee mugs. You can use POD sites for your traditional media art too, all you have to do is take a high-quality photo of the piece and upload it to the site.

Summary

Get creative when turning your poems into visual art. You can even use scrapbooking techniques as a way to create your art. By expanding what you do with your poetry you can reach a larger market, and even get people interested in poetry that never were before. Turning your poetry into art also has the added benefit of adding more emotion to the piece. People are visually stimulated, so seeing images that relate to the words will bring your writing to life for the reader.