September 26, 2009 | The 4-1-1 on Me,The Gurl House,WriterMentor
This week at The Gurl House: DRAWING FROM THE HEART
Instructions:
Part One: On a piece of paper, draw a line or a squiggly line then pass it to the person on your left. Draw for 5 minutes.
Part Two: Take another clean sheet of paper and divide it into 4 quadrants. Listen to 4 different songs and draw your interpretation of the song.
We started out with 6 girls; the same 5 girls from last week and a new one. By the end of the project, we were down to 3, then 2, but we had fun. Emily brought her iPod and the docking station. We got around to 3 songs before the docking station crapped out on us, but that’s all right. We still had fun. So we did. I really, really, really wish I could post today’s project. Unfortunately, I’ll never be able to, so I hope I did my best in describing their work. It’s amazing what these girls can create out of a straight or squiggly line.
During the final pass around, I traced the outline of my left hand and we kept passing it around between the 4 of us. At the end, my “hand” had polished nails, two rings, a bracelet, a tattoo, and a volleyball being spiked over a net (I’m hanging this one in my cubie at work). One of the girls is like me and likes to write. She wrote the word LOVE and we passed it around. By the time we were done, there were words like babies, peace, unity, responsibility, work, play, grace, all the names of the girls who participated today and many more.
The girls that didn’t want to keep their pics, I took home so I can make a book out of them. I wanted to show my hubby what my girls did today, explaining the process. “She’s not a very good artist,” he said of one drawing. I got mad and snatched the two pics away. I didn’t show him the rest. I understand that he’s entitled to his opinion, that it’s his interpretation. But I was too mad to tell him that it’s not about my girls being good artists. And it’s not about showing them how to be artists. It’s about expression and drawing what you feel. That there’s no mistakes, no good or bad, no stupid in art.
I realized something else today: I’m protective of my girls.
In spite of his comment, I’m making a difference in someone’s life and I was reminded of that today:
One of the girls showed me three poems that she’d written and another asked, “Why can’t you guys come everyday?”
