I spent most of yesterday working on the writing portion of Chapter 3 of Soul Mapping. Today, I did the visual part, which involved a bit of finger painting. Appropriate, I think, as this chapter dealt with education, which sent me on a tangent about an experience I had in kindergarten. I remember, during coloring time, getting disgusted that the white crayon didn’t make a very satisfactory mark, so I colored the clouds blue and pink and orange and purple. I thought they looked perfect, but my teacher told me I’d done them wrong. “Clouds are always white,” she said. I remember thinking it was sad that she’d never seen a sunset.
That experience ruined art classes for me throughout grade school and most of high school. No matter how hard I tried, I never seemed to be able to finish my art projects “correctly.” I realize now that the problem was not mine; that it was my teachers who were crappy at the art of education, and not me who was crappy at art. Some people really should not be allowed anywhere near kids.
Soul Mapping, Chapter 3
acrylic, gel pen, oil pastel, and collage in composition book
red paper boat 