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| (Image: Fran Alonso) |
I totally dislike it when it’s said that art is useless, or something just for snobs or dilettantes. I am sure, for own experience, that it really is useful. If you disagree, just read Fran’s testimony…
It’s her time to speak today.
Cristina
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| (Image: Fran Alonso) |
I am 26 years
old and a child psychologist, and some months ago, I decided to start an
aventure: offer some of my time to those needy ones in Africa. That’s how I got
to this quaint, noisy and wild continent, and I settled in Kenya and went to a
school to work. I wasn’t sure about what I would be doing there, I’d find it
hard to understand their English, I felt like in a different world and do some
therapy then seemed impossible. I didn’t know what to do. How would I reach
those children seeking love and knowledge, while I was anxious for giving them
what they lacked? That’s how I thought of art. I have always been an art lover
and I thought that its universal language would be useful and would make it easier
to communicate.
And it actually was that way. I spent 3 months giving art
classes to children from 2nd to 7th grade and it was a wonderful experience.
They had never heard about the words art, freedom, expression… or about Da
Vinci, Picasso… All this wasn’t taught in there, it wasn’t one of their
priorities, which meant, having limited ressources, that they opted to ignore
those subjects. So one day, I took a bunch of colorful pencils, painture,
beads, cardboar, wool, plasticine, Eva foam, things the children never had even
dream about and didn’t know how to use. They were invited to use them freely,
to draw and paint without being evaluated, to give free rein to their
imagination. They felt so anguished when given those instructions! They were so
lost! They’d been always used to using just graphit pencils and erasers and to
drawing only for Science class (maps, volcanoes, compasses), where they had to
copy the model perfectly if they wanted a good grade, and also, if they wanted
to avoid a punishment, therefore, speech freedom seemed uncomfortable and hard
to bear. They were told to express theirselves more and more, and those
creating the craziest thing (the farthest to reality) would be rewarded. Little
by little, they were also forbidden to use an eraser and rulers, until they
were finally able to express theirselves through art after some weeks. They
seemed less trapped, freer, less attached to what their parents asked from
them, more creative, and more rebel I’d also say. All in all, happier.
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| (Image: Fran Alonso) |
I remember
one class in which I showed them a video of Jackson Pollock painting one of his
murals. I told them he was famous and that those murals were quite valuable
They couldn’t believe it, they were so impressed. Most of them disliked the
video and thought the whole world and I were crazy. However, one of them,
Daraya, who has a great sensibility, asked me if he could review the video many
times. Some weeks after, I asked them to create a mural representing Kibera
(the slum they live in). It ended up looking wonderful, with the commerces,
railways, mosques and churches, and in the end, my lovely Daraya –or Leonardo,
as he asked me to call him after having shown him Da Vinci´s artwork -, felt
like daubing on it, as Jackson Pollock. The classmates got all excited and in
the end, what they had drawn wasn´t even visible anymore. The aim of the mural
was to take to my home country to show it to those who don´t know how it is to
live in Kenya, so when I saw that the mural was almost destroyed I nearly
fainted, but well, what else was left to be done? Wasn´t I the one who talked
to them about freedom and showed them about Pollock? I had nothing else to do
but laughing at that little moment of crazyness and creativity.
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| (Image: Fran Alonso) |
Other time, I
took some plasticine so they could shape the African animals. Sadly, I didn´t
forsee that making a model to show them how to use the plasticine (a humble
snail) would lead me to find 27 other snails in the classroom half an hour
later: creativity hadn´t completely settled in their minds yet. Weeks later, I
repeated the activity, and happily saw how we had a jungle inside the room.
Even if most of the animals were those found in cities –mice, cats, pigs,
cows-, at least we had some variety then.
Children
would be waiting for art class for the whole week, they were ready to color the
world in their own way, following their own instructions. I feel like I was a
matchmaker: I showed the kids art and the connection between both was perfect.
I think that, when I went back home, I left the kids happier, calmer and
smarter, useful qualities for their future, since they live in such a
vulnerable environment, that lacks opportunities, their creative spirit will
let them solve conflicts and discover new solutions to the issues they will
have to deal with. I thank art for letting me meet such beautiful people, and I
thank art for letting them be even more beautiful.
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| (Image: Fran Alonso) |
Francisca Alonso
Univ.
Católica de Chile
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