a priest's musings on the journey
Friday, May 18, 2007
Collaborative Art in the Park: Fuel for Zac's creative energy
Tonight, Zac and I went to the opening party for the North Carolina Storytellers Festival in Center City Park , downtown Greensboro. We went to hear some ghost stories, but, no storytellers ever showed up. However, we had the greatest time. There was some great jazz music, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and this cool collaborative art project. When we arrived five local artists were painting. My Zac is becoming interested in art (he has a painting in an art show next week at school) :), so he went straight to the tents where the artists were working. We walked around looking at each of the five works of art- 4 painters and one creating with mixed media. Zac fell in love with one of the paintings- she had just begun creating an upper blue section and a lower golden one. The blue paint was dripping intentionally down into the golden bottom, and she ignored the drips, letting them go where they wanted. Zac was mesmorized, watching her every move. The piece was a beautiful abstract piece; but for me just that. Then, suddenly, Zac said, "that's a pretty forest." I smiled and said encouragingly, "You can see that already? I bet it will be a gorgeous forest when it is completed."
As we stood looking at this emerging forest, she suddenly covered much of the blue with a crimson red, wildly rubbing the red into the blue. The next thing I heard was Zac complaining, "she just ruined it!" He was so upset that he had to leave.
We walked away to listen to the music by the fountains, until we noticed another artist was painting on the "forest canvas." We went back to the tent to discover that each artist had now switched canvases, and were going to continue the work another had started. In fact they would continue switching until each artist had made a contribution to each work.
Zac led us back over to his forest. This second painter apparantly saw something like what Zac had envisioned. Zac smiled as he saw trunks and branches and pink blossoms appear. "See," Zac proclaimed, "I told you it was a forest."
The night ended with an auction of the works created by the collabortive art event. Alas, Zac was not able to leave with his beautiful forest- but he did leave with the desire to go home and create his own :)
PS I'm hoping to find a pic of the painting soon to share.
As we stood looking at this emerging forest, she suddenly covered much of the blue with a crimson red, wildly rubbing the red into the blue. The next thing I heard was Zac complaining, "she just ruined it!" He was so upset that he had to leave.
We walked away to listen to the music by the fountains, until we noticed another artist was painting on the "forest canvas." We went back to the tent to discover that each artist had now switched canvases, and were going to continue the work another had started. In fact they would continue switching until each artist had made a contribution to each work.
Zac led us back over to his forest. This second painter apparantly saw something like what Zac had envisioned. Zac smiled as he saw trunks and branches and pink blossoms appear. "See," Zac proclaimed, "I told you it was a forest."
The night ended with an auction of the works created by the collabortive art event. Alas, Zac was not able to leave with his beautiful forest- but he did leave with the desire to go home and create his own :)
PS I'm hoping to find a pic of the painting soon to share.
:: posted by Padre Rob+, 7:17 PM
4 Comments:
Out of the mouth of babes - good for you Zac! Oh the precious memories of childhood shared!
That's so awesome your son is developing an artistic mind. Hopefully you can share Zac's own forest painting too.
Your stories about your son always brighten my day :) Thanks for sharing.
Eric, thanks for saying that! I really love sharing those stories. Of course it brightens my day to know good friends are connecting with our story and becoming engaged with it- Thank You for sharing with me.
