Tremain Smith, wearing t-shirt with geometric designs, demonstrates sponge painting
July 2010 at Al-Bustan Camp
Intelligent, creative, eager young people come rushing in. “What are we doing today?” Art. We are doing art. Sit down and I’ll tell you. Ibn Majid, Master Navigator, traveling the seas, exploring the winds, currents, coast lines, stars, ports. How do you get from here to there? North, South, East, West. . . Shamal, Janoob, Sharq, Gharb. The compass rose, the eight-point star. Make your own. With compass and straight edge, build the geometric constructions for discovering infinite patterns. Fill them with color. Red, yellow, blue, green, orange, violet. . . ahmar, asfar, azraq, akhdar, burtakali, banafsaji. Paint them, draw them, print them, collage them, mold them, design them, create them.
Each young person that entered the room was an artist, using the tools of an artist, choosing materials, learning the alphabet of art, naturally and with instruction, following through with ideas freely and with guidance. The creative works gathered in abundance with each hour of art-making. By the end of two weeks, these young artists had enthusiastically engaged in multiple media and produced piles of artwork. Some were explorations left unfinished, the process more exciting, more important than the product, and some were fully developed pieces ready to be displayed. They persisted when challenged in complex designs. They reveled in lush colors, in drips, in thick paint. They simply enjoyed their time drawing and sharing their pictures, the stories they told in lines and color. They collaborated in large pieces, making decisions together that ultimately led to visual harmony. They delighted in unexpected outcomes that suddenly happened. Look at that! They were artists, fully engaged, fulfilled and wanting more. I was impressed, exhausted and happy.
Where will they go from here, these intelligent, creative and eager young people? If they continue to navigate from their creativity, and explore with their intelligence, they will go far.
- Tremain Smith, visual artist
visit her website: www.tremainsmith.com
- Tremain Smith, wearing t-shirt with geometric designs, demonstrates sponge painting
- Displaying encaustic panel of alphabet and compass rose
- Enjoying geometric-shaped sugar cookies
- Making collective 8-pointed star designs
