Today was very nice day. I felt fully embraced by the children's artistic expression.
At noon, I visited the Sikh Center for the first kids' drawing session. I was actually not so worried about anything, but I was at least worried that perhaps everybody would draw the same things if their teacher told what to draw or any other reasons...
Not really at all!
First I gathered all kids together and talked to them about what we would do. I had sort of started by talking to the boys. Then, their teacher called the girls over, and amazingly the boys' circle around me moved back and made a half boys and half girls circle. Their school are taught
separately, and the prayer room is also separated down the center by a yellow color carpet. I remembered the Muslim center school also separates boys and girls.
The instruction part was smooth. They spread out to work immediately afterwards. Some did group projects. The girls were working all together since an older girl, who seems like their leader, led them to make one group work (kind of like a patchwork quilt idea). One girl looked
very quiet and did not join in, but did her own drawing which was also very nice. Her brother was very unique and on his own. First he drew the World Trade Center and his sister and others made fun of him since it not exactly related to their religion. I was fine with it, however, because in some way he thought it was linked to his religion, and there must be a reason why he felt it was linked. Or, perhaps he just wanted to draw it, but that's difficult to discern. Later he drew one of the important items for their religion, which was quite nice. I was very impressed. (I will not tell you the detail to let you have fun at the exhibition.)
Two boys sat down chatting and not doing anything. I asked if they do drawings. One of boys said he cannot draw, that he does not know how to do it, so he won't. I asked if he would then consider writing something instead. He pulled his right hand into his sleeve and said "I don't have a hand so I can't do anything!"
That was good try, but I was prepared.
"Well, then you cannot have lunch today, huh?" I replied.
He laughed and sort of tried to figure out what he could do or wanted to do. Either way, I encouraged him to draw or write something - whichever he was comfortable with.
Half an hour later or so, I went back to him and looked at his stuff. He was coloring red with the crayon on the paper. I was curious about what it was. He explained it was carpet downstairs (in the prayer room).
I slowly noticed that there was a place down the middle he was not coloring, and that that was how the carpet would look if we saw the prayer room from above. Hmm, I guess then he knew something about drawing but simply hesitated to do it. I am glad I pushed him to do something.
Quite interestingly everybody did a great job and their works, or the way they worked, seemed to be reflections of where they are and who their parents are.
This evening, I visited the Temple Gates of Prayer (Jewish temple) for the next drawing session. That was also an interesting one.
One girl was absent because of a family gathering, so all of the attendees that evening were young boys. They just wanted to play ball, hide and seek, and whatnot so, it was a bit difficult to get them to focus.
Their instructor, Lauren was nicely leading the boys. However, I was afraid that giving them too much instruction would lead them all to do the same drawings. She said you (boys) are sort of representing the temple and the Jewish culture, or something along those lines.
Although it was good way of wrapping things up for the sake of time, I sort of wanted to wait till they themselves decided to draw what they wanted to, like at the Sikh center. It was nothing wrong. I even appreciate it since the boys literally wanted to get to play "ASAP!"
Yet, that inadvertently led most of the boys to draw the synagogue's alter.
To be fair, at the Sikh center, children also drew their flag and symbols, and other such marks
a lot whether or not anyone gave them a lead to do so.
The curious part was then how each drew the same part, only slightly differently. The each had a slightly different focus. We might not be able to say that is something important or that they had a different meaning, though.
Well, at least, High school students will be able to figure out what religion it is by the drawing without too much guessing.
Again, there was one boy who was wondering what he wanted to draw. He was uninterested in the drawing session. So, I asked him about his recent trip to Israel. He talked on and on about the chain store fast food shops there and here like Burger King and McDonalds, stuff not really related to his religion, which was totally fine for me. (laugh.) I rather had fun with his observations. So, I asked if he could draw all the food he remembered and experiences with them there on his paper. He slowly started working by himself, a bit away from the others.
When I came back I was quite surprised by what he was doing! First, he drew a big Jacob's star. At that moment, I was sort of feeling like, uh-uh! (honestly...) I did not say anything or even did not come over to him. Yes, as an organizer/artist for this project, sometimes I wish to be able to control the overall process more, to be honest with you. However, each time I stop
and let others do what they want to since that is the main concept of this project.
You might wonder then how one organizes everything to be in good shape and meet the deadlines. I would say that is the magic part of this type of artwork. I will not directly control it, but will very carefully organize it to be prepared for everything to fall together in time by being very observant of how things work with each of the participants.
Anyway, back to the boy drawing his big star, he then started coloring brown inside the star.
I asked what it was finally. He asked me if I remembered him talking about Mt. Masada. He said he went there and now he was drawing that mountain here.
Wow, that was an interesting jump!
I am running out of time for now, so I will draw to a conclusion here. He then drew a very nice Israeli flag and nice clouds and sky. I asked him where the people were.
"I cannot draw people," he answered. "I don't like stick figures, but that is all I can draw."
I encouraged him, and later he did two people on top of the mountain. That was terrific! I appreciated his courage.
Yes, I found out how many children hesitate to draw something they can draw. I assume that in their mind they have an idea of what good drawings are. They want to do them that way but cannot, so, they do not like to do it.
It's very sad. That's totally wrong.
If we all drew nicely in the way we see in our minds, we would all fail as artists for sure.
That reminded me of when I was little. I was like that and wanted to be good at drawing. But, sooner or later, I noticed that was actually a reflection of parents' or older people's expectations.
I hope I could help give the kids a bit of freedom from that to encourage their own artistic expression. Well, unfortunately, I am unable to provide three-dimensional artistic expression
for them at this time. I am sure, like myself, some of the kids are much better at expressing
themselves by 3D work. Ideally, all media, such as music, play and dance should be available to them, though.
These experiences have given me so many thoughts for my own ideas about Art.
Thank you for this time guys!
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