Category Archives: joy

heartened by another painting

I didn’t know what I was getting in to. I had never heard of this artist, an American woman, Mary Whyte, showing a large collection of watercolors at the Greenville County Museum in South Carolina. Something kind of pulled me to go and I got the last seat (one that had just opened up for me!) on a Senior Citizen bus making the trip. My, my, my…am I glad I went! Mary was the docent that day which was an extraordinary treat, and she explained the way her project “Working South” got started. So much can be gleaned when a serious artist explains her motivation, and her words confirmed the sense I had been gathering in front of her work, that this is a woman who sees deeply, and then through her formidable skill, loves well.

The very first piece I shot a photo of that day was the one I kept going back to out of the 50 large images in this collection. Her project was to document the people in the South whose livelihoods are disappearing. “The Bee Keeper’s Daughter” was a sermon in paint for me. It left me speechless, and deeply comforted. Beyond the occupation being rendered here were the symbols of her task: silent, and covered, with mystery ascending. The woman has her mouth slightly open as if in a quiet, possibly even joyful conversation. There is a rising of smoke. I guess beekeepers do that; but it too is emblematic to me. And the bee hives make a random-seeming tottering back into deep space, as if pacing toward the horizon. The bees too leave bitter streaks around her, but she is unmoved in her protective garb, her focus is elsewhere. She stands to the side. Most of Mary’s subjects are placed that way, off center. But clearly each subject is the focus of her concern, the reason she documents in color. She looks into souls with her work, and her work (way beyond her ability) looked back into mine. I got a visual that day that is sticking with me. It confirmed what I had already been pondering and then, right there it was. This is art at its best. I was supposed to be there that day. I left strangely warmed. I am one of The Bee Keeper’s Daughters. Thank-you to the Maker of Mary.

(and thank-you Mary Whyte for letting me except this here)

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learning in community

A couple of my students from Spring ‘09 Color Theory told me that they loved the experience of community in their art classes. This interests me. To them, the chance to work together or along side each other with some tricky projects, to discuss and critique in developing relationships over time was a neat part of their growing college experience, and highly valued. I come from such a different time than these kids. When I was in college independent thinking and solo learning was expected. To come up with conclusions as a group would have been considered somewhat suspect, sloppy, or at least auxiliary to the more important solo work. It was every man/woman for himself (as if individuals on their own have all potential access to higher learning). I am changing my mind as I watch what happens when students get engaged and start problem solving together. There is a dynamic there in a group that seems larger than the sum of the parts; that is an exciting synthesis of possible outcomes in newer ways, and students emerge having caught things the teacher does not even yet know. I did have an unusual bunch of great kids this past term, I even thought several times, “maybe I should quit while I’m ahead”, for it is a lot of work anticipating and then evaluating with this kind of discovery approach to keep it still on track. But forged relationships move beyond the classroom and into life. This really interests me.

Continued Leaning in Community

I tried the same group approach to problem solving with some of my after school kids in a local Elementary School. We had 45 minutes to make a mural that showed what the group wanted to communicate. They swang into action, and what was fascinating to me was how they synthesized content quickly, coming to their own ideas and moved into tasks. Leaders emerged, specialists took their part and started to shine, helpers got joy in being necessary, and everybody had fun. Time stopped here, and we ended up with something that was the fruit of collaborative work that can never again be repeated. I expect the lessons learned there were more than just mural coloring.

I am also involved this summer with some adult learners, who are practicing ways to be better facilitators. It is the same thing I’ve been seeing happen with the college students and the grade schoolers. Get them involved, get them dialoging, get them trying and testing, and making mistakes and then evaluating. We can do this because we have a certain freedom to explore, AND a confident expectation that discovery is possible in a world where natural things can progress. It seems the very best learning happens this way. And as a teacher, I can facilitate this best when I am confident that the material can be tested and pushed this way and that, and still the authoritative kernels will sift out and show up, now all the better apprehended. This is an adventure of confident hope.

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