Channeling the Healing Power of Art in Your Homeschool

When life gets tough, an art day can be just what the doctor ordered, and when the world seems dark, a community art project can help us find a little light.

On a Saturday morning about a month after [the 2016] election, I brought my two boys to a local community center, where my younger son’s middle school art honor society was helping to paint murals. There were some kids from the middle school with their parents (and an older sibling, in our case), some volunteer artists, including my son’s art teacher, and kids and adults from the community center, which is part of a public housing complex. Together, we were going to paint in four murals that had been sketched out by the volunteer artists. Later, they’d be hung within the community center.

It was a busy, hectic morning. My older son and I quickly discovered that our best role was in the background, making sure paintbrushes were clean, changing out rinsing water, and helping anyone who needed it with getting paint. Many, many hands added color to the pictures. As the morning went on, I realized that for the first time in a month, I didn’t feel overwhelmed with dread. My hands were busy, my mind was occupied, and I was in a room full of people of all ages, equally busy creating colorful, community art. It was exactly where I needed to be.

In times of uncertainty — which is one of the subtlest words I can choose to describe the current climate in the United States — it’s almost instinct to gather together. Doing so in order to add beauty and inspiration to the world feels even better. And gathering as a community — including members of the community you may not know yet — seems vital. Art-making can be used as the common ground around which to gather.

The event my kids and I attended was coordinated by Creating Communities, a nonprofit organization in Annapolis, Maryland, that provides arts-based mentoring programs; all we did was show up. If a similar opportunity doesn’t exist in your community, try to create one. Obviously, if murals are your objective, it will help to have some experienced artists to sketch them out. But plenty of community-based art experiences can be had without needing superior artistic skills! As with any other event, figure out who and where, then tailor the what to the space.

Who: What parts of your community do you want to bring together? Do you envision a program open to everyone (and thus in a public space), or something more specific, as the mural painting was to the community center? Make sure your organizing is done with the relevant community members and not presented as a final plan. Partnering should occur early in the process, not at the end.

Where: This may be dictated by who is involved. Do you want a public event at a library or a park? Perhaps your co-op space is hosted by or shared with another group and you’d like to partner with them (and simultaneously get to know them better) to beautify your shared space. Or you can partner with a community or recreation center. Think creatively; where do you see a need for some art-making?

What: Community art-making doesn’t need to be elaborate and permanent, like murals. It can be one or the other or neither. A bunch of colored chalk in the hands of kids and adults can become something fun and simple or beautiful and complex; either way, it’s temporary. Prayer or Hope Flags are simple to make and become a powerful art installation when complete. Unless you’re planning a drop-in, public event, make sure to include representatives from the community you’re working with during the brainstorming process.

Remember to value the process overall. Community art-making is first and foremost about coming together, and that should be a relaxed, happy experience. Because our group was painting murals, some areas were touched up at the end by the volunteer adult artists, but during the group painting, nobody was criticized or bossed around for color choices or their ability to stay in the lines. If your project involves a set idea on what the product should look like, make sure to figure out a way for that to happen while also honoring everybody’s contribution to and enjoyment of the process.

Most importantly, spend some time talking to people you don’t know while you make art alongside them. Create something, together.

(Additonal/optional: this is adapted from a post that first appeared at amyhoodarts.com in May 2015)

How-To: Block-Printed “Hope” Flags

This is adapted from a post that first appeared at amyhoodarts.com in May 2015.

These are inspired by Tibetan Prayer Flags, which are hung in the elements until they disintegrate, releasing the prayer or hope. Participants can depict a hope for themselves, their family, or their community and add it to the display. Prayer flags were traditionally block printed, but this uses a printmaking method accessible to all ages and skill levels, scratch-foam printmaking.

Materials: 

• 7”x9” rectangles of repurposed cotton cloth

• Styrofoam trays

• pencils

• liquid acrylic craft paint

• foam brushes

• clothesline

Preparation: 

• Cut the rectangles from repurprosed cloth if possible (solid, light-color sheets are perfect).  Using a rotary cutter with a pinking blade or pinking shears makes a zig-zag edge, which cuts down on fraying a little. Press a fold at one end to create a 7”x7” square and stitch to make a casing. Using a chain-piecing method makes this go more quickly, but backstitch at the beginning and end of each casing so they don’t come undone.

• Using a craft knife, metal ruler, and cutting mat, slice the raised edges from the Styrofoam trays (which can be purchased in packages of 25-50 online) and then cut them into quarters. If you choose to repurpose the trays, stick with vegetable trays rather than ones used to package raw meat, for hygienic reasons.

Method

1. Think about what hope, dream, or wish you’d like to share, and how you can represent it with a simple image.

2. Using a pencil, draw the image onto the smooth side of a Styrofoam rectangle. You want to indent the Styrofoam, but not make holes in it. Your image will print in reverse, so keep that in mind while drawing. Words are probably too tricky at this point unless you are very good at mirror writing.

3. Paint a thin layer of acrylic paint onto your scratch-foam drawing. If it’s too gloppy, your image will get obscured when you print.

4. Take a look at a blank hope flag. The casing (the folded over and sewn bit) is at the top, and the fold is towards the back. Lay the front of the flag over your painted foam and firmly smooth it to transfer the paint. Don’t wiggle it around or your image will smudge. Just firmly press. Then peel it off. Optional: Have permanent markers on hand so people can add words to their picture.

5. Run the string through the casing and hang the flags to dry; this also creates your display as you go.

Optional: Have paper available so participants can make a print to take home and/or send them home with their printing plate.

Liquid acrylics don’t require heat-setting to be permanent on fabric, so your display makes itself as people create flags. Hang outside or in to beautify your space and remind the community of its shared hopes.

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Take a Virtual Field Trip to the National Gallery of Art

It’s the National Gallery’s birthday — and a virtual visit can start some awesome conversations about art in your secular homeschool.

March is the birthday of the National Gallery of Art, which was established March 17, 1941. Its mission was to make a broad swathe of art — from medieval altarpieces to abstract expressionism — accessible to all U.S. citizens, which is why it’s never charged an admission fee. The museum, which opened during World War Two, when cultural institutions in Europe were shutting down, represented both hope for the future and the importance of arts and culture, said then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who thought that art should be for the people, not just the elite who could afford to purchase it — which is why it’s appropriate that you can check out some of the highlights of its collection from the comfort of your own home.

Ginevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci

Da Vinci’s painting of the Italian woman poet is his only work permanently on display in the western hemisphere, and Ginevra’s expression is as inscrutable as the Mona Lisa’s.

Little Dancer by Degas

The only sculpture Degas ever put up for exhibition was almost universally scorned during its 1881 showing, but the ballerina statue has become one of the most famous in the world — and the original (complete with human hair in her braid) is at the National Gallery.

The East Wing by Alexander Calder

The East Wing of the National Gallery has the largest collection of the sculptor’s work, but the big draw — literally — is the unnamed sculpture in the entry. Calder didn’t believe in “naming the baby” until it was born, and since he died before this last — and largest — work was installed, it never received a name.

Hahn/Cock by Katharina Fritsch

The star of the rooftop, this giant electric blue rooster turns conventional art on its head: “I, a woman, am depicting something male. Historically it has always been the other way around,” says Fristch.

Into Bondage by Aaron Douglas

An unflinching depiction of the Atlantic slave trade and its impact on African-American life, Douglas’s painting is one of the masterworks of the Harlem Renaissance.

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