When the Painting Comes Alive
Hello Wonder-ers,
This week was a breath of fresh air for me. I love love love seeing our students - the ones returning from last semesters and also meeting our new students. It’s a precious time.
Here’s just a few things that were highlights for me:
One of our students (C.)- who has been attending Wonder Studio for over 1year and a half, finally painted his first painting. C. came to get me to show me and this painting was something quite special. With the gift of time, he was ready to really devote himself to this new interest. (See purple painting below)
This fella is my bug guy, so in the absence of our worms, his focus, turned to painting. His Dad joked that it only took a year and a half, but I love that both his Mom and Dad were patient and let C. be C. and I’m so excited to see what he does next week!
I especially love that he added on to a painting that I initiated before class for “inspiration”, see the 2nd pic.
When the Art Comes Alive
And, another story at the easel….
I truly cherish the moments when a child comes up to me and asks me to come and see what they are doing. What a delight!
This guy (see below) asked me to come over and take a look at his painting.
This is the beginning of the 3rd year for R. at Wonder Studio - hard to believe.
He used to be the bull in the china shop (as some of you parents with the 18mos. olds can identify with, lol!)…and he has grown into a deeply intuitive 3.5year old with big feelings and a big imagination.
He begins to tell me about his painting, focusing on the negative spaces, the “holes” in the center, he is talking about a digger and making lots of sounds from the painting - words don’t really express what this painting is communicating to him, but he describes it with absolutely glorious sounds.
He quietly said to himself, as he added a few more strokes, “I’m an artist.” Then, he added more dots of paints, with additional sounds, then he was pleased at first when he saw 2 dots seemed to be “eyes”. At this moment, (I’ll share the video on our instagram), he sort of steps back, looking at the painting.
You can tell, the painting has all the sudden come alive to him.
He says, “They’re scary.”
Wow.
I felt so inspired by him and his process. He let the painting change as he painted.
I think this is why it’s so important as we are witnessing our children create, that we are careful how we react.
I asked him to tell me about the painting. But, not the question - “What is it?” That is such a closed ended way to interact with a painting and an artist.
These children are artists. This is a vulnerable state.
As an artist myself as well as an art teacher, I can tell you that I learned so much from R. about being an artist.
Let the painting speak to you!
Be open to what it wants to become.
When your art comes alive to you - it is scary - it’s quite bewildering.
I wonder what would’ve happened if I had said to R. - shall we say hello to your painting?
And, Mom, was right next to R. (holding his baby sister) both of them looking on and delighting in his discoveries. She didn’t need to say a lot, the look on her face said it all. You have permission R. to be who you are.
Generations of Hands at the Table
My last story of the week - The flour table was very popular this week. In the pic below you can see Grandma’s hand and her grandaughter C. used her hand as an integral part in her play. She scooped the flour into grandmas’s hand and pat it down over and over again for at least 10 minutes. Grandma, said very little. She was just there, offering her presence. Truly amazing.
