I spent my day sharing my joy for making individual marks with St.Francis Catholic school demonstrating how I might begin a fabric surface design project and the processes I might employ.
1. I began with asking them to fill a white sheet of paper with bright colors and a multitude of marks...text....spirals... graffiti...etc.
2. I then provided scraps of paper to build up textures and weaving the papers to glue down for individual design elements.
3. After introduction of what a collograph process is and working in a collaboration to make individual composition I demonstrated how the layers make our images more interesting.
4. I began demonstration of applying colors to the collograph and then using a brayer to apply the colors to the three layers on their individual compositions.
5. Just for fun, I added the elements of stencils ...hearts for the seasonal Valentine's theme and angel wings to add a rock star theme. We used sea sponges to stencil the images and the students enjoyed the discovery of sea shells inside the sponges. One shell fell out and the little girl squealed...Can I keep this? Smiles.
6. I then added the option of alphabets...foam shapes...foam stamps... but we ran out of time and with 28 little artists in the room I could read the disappointment in their faces. On top of this ....there was an official FIRE drill....the cooking class had a small fire disaster so the whole school ended up outside until the coast was clear. My paints were drying upstairs in the hot heated classroom .... Yikes!!!
At the end of the afternoon and the students said their afternoon prayer and blessing before their dismissal I was a little sad that no one was going to install these pages for a display or discussion of how each student felt working in this manner. Then after a rush of clean up after 56 students I rushed to the Women's Center from our hospital...to get my annual mammogram. There is nothing like volunteering to go in and squish my boobs between the cold plastic plates. I had a very nice technician and she was gentle but of course I was bruised almost immediately. Is it any wonder why woman sometimes avoid this procedure??? I came home and climbed into bed and slept until Ken came home. I know why I am not in the classroom full time....I just cannot do this active interaction with a large group of people.
Was i wrong to be a bit disappointed in the lack of delight expressed by the adults and teachers...I thought there should have been some type of recognition and display of their sacred marks. This simple step to show the works empowers the students in ways my words cannot totally express. Maybe the fatigue...maybe the interruption with a Fire drill... maybe the lack of strength and endurance ... I felt as if I had failed. I will share the few photos I was able to take ... and you can give me some feedback on what I could have done differently. I wish you peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart
