Painting the Music

This week at Carpe Diem, my young students and I created this painting as we listened to the music of J.S. Bach.  On the first day, we listened to the pipe organ and painted with strong, dark blues and greens, using large brushes and bold strokes.  On the next day, we listened to the harpsichord and painted with sparkling whites, yellows and greens, making short, bright strokes with small brushes.  On the third day, we looked at our finished work and spent time talking about what we saw.  Here are some of the marvelous things my students saw in their painting:

• "Strong Thunder"
• "Like a Festival"
• "Wish of a Dinosaur"
• "Going on the Ferris Wheel"
• "I'm Imagining I was On the Stairs"
• "Nighttime on a Special Friday"
• "It Snowed"
• "Night Near the City"
• "I See the Sun Coming Up"
• "It's Rotating"
• "Bananas and Hot Dogs"
• "I See a Flower Down in the Deep Cold Water"
• "Mezzazoo"
• "Raindrops on the Stairs"
• "A Bonker Party"
• "A Tiger is Hiding in the Circle"
• "Different Moons"
• "Everybody Throwing Candy in the Air"
• "A Pinata Falling Down"
• "Flowery Night"
• "Broken Necklace"
• "Lights on a Tree"
• "A Canoe Going for a Ride in the Water"
• "I See a Shark Down There"
• "Rain Beads"

These students range in age between 2 and 5.  About sixty-five of them worked on the painting, in class groups of 8 to 14 students.

Plano International Festival

I had a wonderful Saturday at the Plano International Festival!  Too many kids to count painted on my canvas, while friends from the Writer's Garret helped them write poems and stories inspired by the process.  I kept hearing things like "this is my favorite day," "this is fun," and "I want to do this every day!"  One nine-year-old boy stayed for about three hours, painting, dictating stories and poems, and telling me all kinds of things.  My favorite:  Mona Lisa's eyes follow you wherever you go.  NOTE:  the painting now lives in the conference room at the Writer's Garret, brightening poetry workshops and other creative gatherings.
Here are some pictures of the painting in progress:

Finished CommuniTREE Painting

Here's how White Rock Lake felt to all 52 of us who painted together last Saturday:  a joyful urban oasis.  Thank you to everyone-- and especially to the bright boy who had the brilliant idea to paint a glowing sun in the middle of the branches!

Upcoming Event!

Great news!  I'll be collaborating with friends at the Writer's Garret next Saturday at the Plano International Festival.  I'll be facilitating a painting, and others will be facilitating an exciting creative writing adventure inspired by the experience.  Come celebrate our shared creativity in color, shape, and language!    Art, story, and poetry are for everyone, because every human life contains beauty, power, and untold depth.  Come share a little of yours!  For more information, visit http://www.planointernationalfestival.org/

CommuniTREE

Pictures from yesterday's CommuniTREE celebration at the Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake.  Thank you to all of the wonderful people who contributed to this painting.  I'm finishing up the backgrounds, and I'll post a picture of the finished painting soon!

Great News!

After a summer hiatus, it's time to get this project going again.  I've been invited to bring the Big Blue Umbrella project to an exciting event on Saturday, September 24, at the Bath House Cultural Center.  It's called "CommuniTREE" and it will be a very eclectic autumn equinox celebration.  Picture drum circles, storytellers, food vendors, crafts, musicians, and a multitude of colorful goings-on.  Sounds like the perfect environment to set up a giant canvas and see what beautiful images might come from the hands of strangers!  I can't wait. Check out http://www.earthrhythms.org/ for more information.

Progress on Canvas #2

Rained Out

So much for the big blue umbrella.  Sunday evening, it filled with towering storm clouds.  The only creatures interested in my painting were a couple chiggers crawling around on the canvas, between blue lines.  Their cousins were busy sucking my blood.  Suddenly the heavy heat broke, and I scrambled to pack up.  The canvas bucked so hard in the wind, I could hardly wrestle it to the car. I hoped my easel wouldn't act as a lightning rod. Big fat drops pelted the windshield on the way home. 

the sky

the lake

Canvas #2 Has Begun!

I set up Canvas #2 on Saturday.  The Texas heat has already lowered its lid over my corner of the world.  The lake was no longer humming with breezy spring activity, and few people stopped to paint.  I was wondering if I should have set up closer to the playground, when a runner came along, announced that he was heading off to art school in the fall, and jumped into painting with gusto and panache.  First he smeared his hand red and made an arching row of handprints to follow the blue lines I had painted.  Then he mixed water into red, yellow, and green, and tinged areas of the canvas with subtle, transparent washes.  He tried several brushes, splattering thin yellow over the washes.  He told me about his latest project, which had involved homemade paint mixed from dirt and clear gesso.  I regret not snapping a photo of this fearless artist (who was flecked with paint by the time he was done), but I was too engrossed in watching his process to think of my camera.

Painting at Jess Harben Elementary

After she saw this blog, my friend Sheridan Braggs invited me to visit her first grade class.  They created this colorful canvas, which is nearly finished.  The children dove in with great enthusiasm.  Check out the periwinkle blues!  Sheridan says everyone who's seen the picture has been thrilled about it.  In fact, rumor has it that a giant collaborative canvas will be part of the next teacher inservice meeting at Jess Harben Elementary.  Go, Sheridan!  Let's spread the notion that we're all part of something big, beautiful, and singular!

Canvas #1 Completed!

Here it is!  Thank you to all the wonderful strangers who stopped and painted with me at the park.  Not only have you helped me create this happy work of art, you have given me reason to believe people are wonderful.  Here are the joyful, whimsical shapes and colors we didn't know we were going to create until it was happening!  Thank you for your ideas and for your friendly willingness to join in my experiment.

And now we need a title!  E-mail me at lisahuffaker@yahoo.com with suggestions.

By the way, I've already bought a second canvas, and can't wait to begin!

Painting #1 Nearly Done

By now the canvas was so full it reminded me of Newspaper Rock, the famous petroglyph panel near Canyonlands National Park.  Now there's an incredible piece of collaborative art -- created over the past 1,500 to 2,000 years!

I worked to intensify some of the fainter figures, and to surround the images with color, in order to bring all this diversity into a context.  Forty people between the ages of 2 and 55 had contributed to the painting during six visits to the lake, and it was nearly done!

Some interesting things that happened

• A graceful young Chinese woman added the Chinese characters for "spring", "summer", "autumn", and "winter", placing them carefully in just the right sections of the picture. 
• Three little boys in matching orange soccer uniforms tried to copy her beautiful calligraphy, and she declared their efforts a success.
• A runner training for his first marathon stopped just long enough to add a blue Nike "swoosh".
• An eighteen-year-old girl insisted her entire family pull over and get out of the car.  Swirling spirals, a flaming tulip, and a blue chessboard appeared on the canvas, thanks to them.
• A mysterious stranger contemplated the painting for a long time, but opted not to paint because, as he enigmatically put it, he chose to "save all his creative energy for music."
• A two-year-old girl painted with great enthusiasm while simultaneously eating pizza.
• A charming runner painted a pterodactyl and a tyrranosaurus rex.
• A little boy painted a blob in front of the t-rex, excitedly narrating a story about how the giant rock was rolling down the hill, but the dinosaur would jump over it just in time.
• The ice cream truck drove by, and a little girl stopped painting and shouted, "Listen!  It's the Song Truck!"  Strangers shared stories about childhood.
• A ten-year-old boy painted a group of concentric circles with dots that reminded me of flowers by Gustav Klimt.

People came to paint.



Painting at White Rock Lake

I thought:  why doesn't someone set up a huge canvas at White Rock Lake, and invite everyone to paint?  I thought it would be a friendly sight:  bright colors evolving in a beautiful park, people creating something together.  I am fascinated by the creativity and uniqueness I'm convinced is lurking behind the faces of strangers.  I thought:  why not cast a net and see what a random sample brings? 

So I went to the art store and bought a 36" by 60"canvas -- the biggest I could fit in my Volkswagen.  I found a shady spot under a huge cottonwood tree, right next to the trail.  I set up an easel and tied down the canvas with stakes, so my giant kite wouldn't sail away in the breeze (no wonder sailboats are such a common sight at White Rock!)  I set out my water, brushes, and tubes of acrylic paint.  Then I took a deep breath, swallowed my shyness, and set up my sign.  It read:

"PLEASE HELP CREATE THIS PAINTING -- EVERYONE IS WELCOME"

What if all the rollerbladers, runners, picnickers, bicyclists, and birdwatchers thought I was crazy?  I forced myself to dive in.  I started with big, arching lines in cobalt blue.  I created "zones" on the canvas, shapes I hoped people might want to fill with their own ideas.  I heard redwing blackbirds.  I smelled barbecue.  People passed by and made friendly comments.  A few stopped to watch, but no one volunteered to paint.

Then a father approached me and asked if his 9-year-old daughter could paint.  Delighted, I soon had both of them dabbling away.  Strange flowers began to appear on the white expanse of the canvas.  Thanks to the first two, others began to join in.  A big yellow sun rose in the picture.  Two ladies strolled by and gave it a face.  Bicycles rested in the grass while their owners painted whirling pink spirals, leafy vines, and mysterious heiroglyphs.  A set of siblings, ages 2, 4, and 5, came along and added dozens of green vertical marks, which other people began interpreting as grass.

Best of all, everyone seemed delighted to be there.  An older couple, who never did paint, nonetheless set up their lawn chairs on a hill where they had a good view of the canvas.  They watched for over an hour.  It was a friendly afternoon.  Sometimes people talked;  sometimes people painted in silence.  When I finally packed everything up, I couldn't wait to come back.  The painting had a long way to go, and I was smiling from the inside out.