This paper addresses my experience with a group of 11^th grade students and their reading of The Grapes of Wrath (1939, 2002) by John Steinbeck. I questioned how the application of visual arts integration strategies, specifically the use of spontaneously created paintings, might influence the reader responses of my high school junior-level students to The Grapes of Wrath? Additionally, I wondered how this experience might change me as a classroom teacher and as a reader? Specifically, using the heuristic methodology as described by Clark Moustakas, I systematically examined the responses of a select group of high school juniors to reading The Grapes of Wrath and to the use of arts integration, specifically spontaneous paints, as a method for responding to literature. Using a paint-write process which involves reading, free writing, and free painting, students created paints that helped express their thoughts and feelings about the novel. In addition to creating their own pieces, students responded to existing art work. Building on the works of John Dewey, Louise Rosenblatt, Richard Beach, and Eliot Eisner, the study suggests that students who use these forms of art to respond to literature learn to create their own understanding, to access their thought processes, and to experience a transaction with the text. Further research is needed to more fully understand the influence of teaching creativity skills, lengthening the instruction time allowed for the novel, and applying the Paint-Write process to other works of literature.