Multicultural Art Classes

Introduction:
Welcome to a web page updating my activities for Planting Anew, a project sponsored by a Rockefeller Fellowship I receive through the University Center for International Studies at UNC. The theme of this fellowship is Immigration, Minorities, and the Specter of Race.

My project is bringing together people from all backgrounds to create art that both shares their unique experience and cultural values and explores the future fusion of cultures through collaborative art making. More information on my project is available on my Rockefeller Fellowship page.

This page will spot light my students efforts and will be updated regularly. Currently, I am working with a group in Greensboro, North Carolina. Starting in October I will be in Biscoe, North Carolina. Images and comments on both classes will be posted here.

The Greensboro Art Class has started out wonderfully. A wide variety of participants are working hard to tell their own stories visually. A mother and daughter who have recently immigrated from Mexico are creating pictures full of symbolism that express the events of their lives and the world they have left behind but in many ways miss deeply.

Another participant from China is busy illustrating the wonderful years she spent in school. Her enthusiasm for learning and her love for her family seem to fly in the face of the stereotyped Chinese family that gives up their daughters for adoption.

A couple has just recently joined our group. She is from Maine and he from Africa. Their works will reflect very different backgrounds but their combined work will be a natural for them!

One participant from Africa and another African-American have come once and I hope will return. Numerous volunteers from Guilford College are attending as well, including two talented artists. Thanks for all the help!

More pictures soon!

Thursday, September 9, 2004

The Greensboro Class was well attended tonight. There were four returning participants and one new one. Everyone is developing a strong image that reflects their personal story. I forgot to bring my digital camera so I will post images next week of everyone's work.

Our next Greensboro class is on September 16th at 6:30PM. We are meeting in the drawing room of the Hege-Cox building on Guilford Colleges campus.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Today, on the third anniversary of 9/11 I traveled to Biscoe, NC to help in a community service day called "Operation Inasmuch" and spread the word of my art project. This was a day organized by the Mayor's wife, Rebecca Price, and members of several churches, including The First Baptist Church of Biscoe, and a Methodist Church to help those in need in the Biscoe area. Activities included home repair, yard clean up, health screening, trash pickup, child safety seat checks, firewood splitting and donations, and community center grounds clean up. The Methodist church in Biscoe has just opened a new community food pantry that was in operation as well.

I volunteered to help document the day with digital photos. My photos and others taken by four or five other volunteers were compiled into a power point presentation that was shown at the Biscoe First Baptist Church at the end of the day. It was a beautiful day and the fellowship and energy of so many people was uplifting.

I and Franklin Suggs, a friend and resident of Biscoe, drove around to the various work sites and took photos. Hard work. The first house we went too was the most affecting. It was a mobile home outside of town that needed a new door and windows. Eight children and their mother lived there. Her parents lived next door. I photographed the volunteers working on the house and then started noticing, and making friends with the children.

They were sweet kids. I late talked to the mother and invited her to join the Biscoe art project starting in October. She told me she loved to draw and in fact had once gotten into art school in California and had not been able to go. I hope that she can attend the class and I cannot help but think about returning to do an art project with the kids.

One other thing that has been on my mind since the day's activities was the complete lack of Hispanic participation. I need to ask Rebecca, the planner of the project, why this was so. I suspect that an invitation to participate was extended but for whatever reason did not happen. Nearly half of Biscoe's population is Hispanic.

Thursday, September 17, 2004

The class in Greensboro went great tonight. Two new participants joined us and other students returned. Countries of origin among the students include China, Brazil, USA, Niger, Mexico, and Burkina Faso in West Africa. Wonderful stories and works of art are emerging. Below are pictures from tonight's class.



UPDATE: Our Greensboro class in now meeting on Friday nights, 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM in the Hege-Cox art building at Guilford College. The class in on the second floor in the drawing studio. More pictures will be posted soon.

October 14, 2004

Do you remember the scenes in Forrest Gump movie in which Forrest quietly unravels his life story to the strangers waiting for the bus? Last night I felt like one of those strangers as I sat and listened to the life stories unfold among a unique gathering of people. I was sitting in the first meeting of my multicultural art class in Biscoe, North Carolina. Six ladies had showed up for this free class that is part of my Rockefeller Fellowship out of UNC. They had come in pairs, bringing a friend or relative with them for security. Two were African-American sisters who had retired to Biscoe after lives lived in Washing DC. Two were Hispanic, one from El Salvador and the other from Mexico. The last pair was the mayor's wife, like I born in Biscoe, and her good friend, an artist from Peru named Elida. Just as in the movie, stories of great heroism and tragedy slowly took shape as we each shared pivotal influences and moments that shaped our lives. Deloris and Erlene, the sisters from DC, told about growing up poor in the South, about how without TV they told stories as a family on story night, how each person worked hard to gather together a story for the next telling, and how those stories still stood out in their minds fifty years later. They also told of how as children with few toys they would spend hours building sandcastles in a pile of sand after a rain. " If you have to be poor, I'd rather be poor in the country than in the city" said one. "Those were good times."

Mary, from El Salvador first limited her story to the bare facts of growing up, marrying in Mexico and coming to America. With a little questioning she soon revealed her experiences as a nurse to children in a hospital in El Salvador. She hid her face in her hands and cried as she told of an earthquake that had leveled the hospital, killing so many of the poor that a monument to the unknown dead had been built. Elida from Peru told of her parents growing up in extreme poverty and her later experience living the high life in the big city as a fashion designer. She had been so successful that she lived as a "plastic girl" always keeping the credit card warm from visits to spas, shops, and clubs. Her life in rural Biscoe was shockingly different but the love of her new husband, and a new job, kept her anchored and happy. After everyone spoke in this way we talked about icons that could symbolize our lives. I picked a stray dog to represent my feelings of not fitting in anywhere really but being at home everywhere. Elina from Peru picked a column, Mary was at a loss until we pointed out that her nickname "Mary" served as an icon for her compassion for children. She looked satisfied with this idea. One of the ladies from DC said that "blue sky and white clouds" represented her the best. "How can you not look at blue sky and clouds and not feel happiness?" she said. Rebecca, the mayor's wife said that music ran like a thread through her life. Mary's friend, Guadalupe said the stars were her icon. " I love the night sky. I see myself as a star " she shared.

After giving the homework assignment to create a sketch that represented their life story we ended the class. Everyone immediately stood up and shook hands and expressed real joy over meeting each other. Conversations flowed naturally as we stepped outside into the night. Guadalupe turned to me with a playacting frown and said "I am sad." Why? I asked. "Because there are no stars out tonight." I wished I had thought to say that there were six who shown that night, six of different colors, but each so brilliantly.

If a white feather had landed at my feet just then it would not have made the evening more special. I loved Forest Gump because running through it was a thread that made everything seem like it was meant to be. Last night's meeting was tied to that same thread. As I stepped into my car and drove off into the dark I could imagine it running onward, tied to the great art this group of special ladies will assuredly make in the near future.

November 18, 2004

After a two week break everyone greeted each other last night with cheers and hugs. The class in Biscoe has steadily come along. Everyone is creating their first piece of art, which tells something of importance about their life. One student is creating a painting of an old boat. "It's old and a bit tired, but it's still in the water!" was their comment recently.


Two other participants, the Richardson sisters, are creating wonderful paintings of a home in the woods. Homes have appeared as a theme in many paintings in this project. I think they are an important icon for people when they think of what influenced their growth. It symbolizes so much and seems universal in importance. Here is a close up of one of the many funny animals that have appeared in these home pictures.


Rebecca back from a trip started her painting which through a flower arrangement symbolically represents people and events who have influenced her in life. Rebecca swears she has never painted before but her assured brushstrokes make that statement suspicious. Here is a close up of some of her flowers.


Elida, who is from Peru, brought in her mother who is visiting. They gave me a wonderful CD of Peruvian (sp?) music that we listened to all night. I think it is interesting how her painting matches the scarf that she wears.



After class I stopped by a Hispanic Bakery still open at 9 PM. Inside the staff and their family watched TV. I picked out a yummy looking pastery and paid only 60 cents. I wished I could have spoken in Spanish to them. I thanked them in English and drove into the night enjoying my pastery along with the memory of a great class. As we brake for Thanksgiving (no class next Thursday, Nov. 25th) I will include these wonderful artists and their art in my Thanksgiving prayers.

November 19, 2004

The class at Guilford College is still meeting, now on Fridays from 6:30PM to 8:30PM. Anyone and everyone is invited to this free art class. Several participants have finished their first paintings and have begun their collaborative pieces. Several weekends ago I and three participants from this class went to Reynolda House of American Art and SECCA to view their collections. It was a fun trip! I'll have more pictures to post soon.