[Nfb-krafters-korner] What a neat weekend!

Tue May 31 11:58:23 UTC 2011

How nice of you to let me know how it went. I was thinking about you two and 
wondered. What a great day you both had with Art!

Well, ART is like that - there is nothing else I can think of that 
completely takes one away from everything around you in your life, and 
transports you somewhere you could never anticipated going. And, time does 
not exist once you are into making art. Somehow, you step outside of time, 
and enter a new place and experience JOY.

I laughed out loud as I read that you had BOTH hands in the glue and making 
a mess with it. That is absolutely wonderful.  I did not learn to do that 
until I was in a college drawing course - with cahrcoal.  Somehow, I began 
to rub both hands into the surface of the paper and smear that charcoal all 
about - and it was magic. At first I felt like a naughty child, getting all 
dirty - but it was so wonderful and I had taken a big step towards ART 
making when I forgot all about me and just plunged into the picture surface 
with both hands. It is a point of no return to do that.  I think Willy will 
be so proud of what he has done. And, didn't you find it much more freeing 
to use a hard surface and lots of glue? You did not have to be worrying 
about ruining anything becaue that hard surface can take any beating you can 
give it in the process of creating.

Do you realize that Willy is having experiences that most children never 
have?  Most children are forced to "color in the lines."  Once when I was in 
church, there was a young family in the pew in front of me. As we stood to 
sing, I could see that the little boy was coloring - he was seated as the 
parents stood to sing.  Then, I saw the father tell him to color inside the 
lines...the child did not do it exactly. So then, father reached down and 
forced the childs hand to color INSIDE the lines - I wanted to cry I was so 
sad to see this kind of control over the child - for something that should 
have been a pleasure for the child.

Two of my grand daughters lived with us when they were very young, prior to 
going to school.  They had full use of my studio and could use anyting they 
wanted, any time. They were so small, they could not even open up the tubes 
of paint. They would show me what they wanted and I would squeeze out a blob 
on their palettes. Then, I would leave them alone in the studio.  When they 
were finished, they would come to find me, and show me their pictures. 
Children instinctively KNOW how to make ART - and it has nothing at all to 
do with staying inside of LINES.  It is just the opposite - it is messy and 
carefree, and then wonderful magic happens.

Thanks for  sending me this good news. I am very happy to hear it. Willy is 
one special little boy!
Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Carlson" <dick.carlson0428 at earthlink.net>
To: "'List for blind crafters and artists'" <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 3:19 AM
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] What a neat weekend!

> Hello everyone!
>
>
>
> It's good to be writing you again after a little break.  I have some neat
> news to share with you.  It's all art and good!
>
>
>
> As you recall, last weekend, I'd gotten everything ready to start that
> collage with Willy.  I don't quite know what happened, but Saturday came 
> and
> went, and we were not able to do much.  A friend of the family came to
> visit, and we spent a lot of the day with him.  Because we hadn't seen 
> him,
> it made sense for us to have spent the day with him.  We both took Willy 
> to
> the park for some of that day and then we had gone a few other places.
>
>
>
> Well, Mr. Willy and I had some good fun this weekend and actually did 
> quite
> a bit of that collage in a couple of days!  He was somewhat surprised when 
> I
> told him that I also was going to do this without seeing and had a
> blindfold.  He wondered why and then asked what would happen if he needed 
> me
> to look at something with my eyes.  He wasn't sure what we were going to 
> do
> with some things or how we were going to do them, but once I told him it
> would be fun, he figured it would be OK.  He was surprised with when I 
> told
> him I wouldn't need my eyes for his project and that he was going to do a
> lot of the work as well.
>
>
>
> Oh man, we had everything from scraps of felt to pieces of different paper
> and thicknesses of paper to beads to little smooth stones, to even a 
> couple
> of interesting feeling rocks to some shells to stickers and a few other
> things.  I also had him cut a some strips of different colored ribbon and
> paper.  We had a lot of different things we put on that.
>
>
>
> Willy also had a breakthrough with the collage project that I think will 
> be
> good for future arts and crafts.  Willy was willing to use his hands for
> everything.  I told him that using our hands would be the only real way we
> could do the project.  It was great because he, like I, was feeling around
> the area, looking for different places to put the various things.  We 
> helped
> one another out and suggested places to paste the items.  It gave him a
> chance to explore and look around a bit, which was great!
>
>
>
> So, how did we work around the issue of working with glue?  Well, we 
> didn't
> have much of a choice.  I didn't think that brushes would be the best for
> him, or me for that matter.  So, He asked who was going to put the glue on
> for him, and I told him he was going to do it all with his fingers.  I 
> told
> him that when we had tried this before, he did it with just his very 
> finger
> tip and was not very successful.  I told him we'd have to find a better 
> way
> to feel and spread the glue, so I suggested we use at least one finger.
> Both of us did this, and you know, Willy didn't mind after getting into 
> it.
> At first he said that it was "gooey."  I told him it wouldn't be a big 
> deal
> because fingers and hands could be washed.  However, I figured we'd go at 
> it
> all the way, so I didn't have the soapy water after all.  I had kind of
> forgotten that part anyway, and figured this could work to our advantage. 
> I
> had a few paper towels, and those would be fine.  Both of us even ended up
> using two fingers at times!
>
>
>
> So, here's the shocker.  Somewhere in the project, we were doing well.
> Willy was already used to doing things, and said that working with the 
> gooey
> stuff wasn't too bad after all.  In fact, at one point, he was the one who
> asked for more glue because he was running out and wasn't getting enough 
> for
> using it.  He had fun, and he said he had fun!  He said he would like to 
> do
> more and was fine with getting his hands dirty.  I was being funny and
> asking things like, "Even if we did an ooey, gooey project where we have 
> to
> get all of our hands dirty?"  He said OK!  How great!
>
>
>
> Toward the end, when we were pretty much done with the collage, we even 
> were
> being silly and fingerpainted with the left-over glue on the paper.  I 
> don't
> know why, but I ended up putting both sets of fingers and so did he.  We
> drew lines and I did things like drew my name and such.  It was fine.
>
>
>
> His collage will be shown to people, I'm sure.  He's proud!
>
>
>
> Dick
>
>
>
>
>
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