Children's Lecture and Workshops Excerpts of responses ~from responses of 7 th and 8 th graders at Charter School after Verna taught a workshop on abstract art~
“I have to admit, in previous events of my life I found myself disliking art, however your class changed that. Looking at your slides made me see beyond only some colors formed together. I especially liked the paintings with the light coming in from the top, as symbol of hope or God. Your paintings not only helped open my eyes to he true beauty of abstract art, but they inspired me to create such beauty as well. My painting I believe represents the green and blue river of life stream which connects all the beings and their actions on earth. I am grateful that you took time to come and give us this lesson. I also hope that in the near future you may return, and allow me to behold and understand the beauty of abstract art even more deeply and powerfully than before.” ~~~ “Thank you for coming and teaching us about abstract art. Before you came I thought that abstract art was just a waste of paint. Now I think [of] abstract art as a picture depicting the artist's feelings. In my picture I used my beliefs to give me the idea. I call it “One Reason Jesus Died.” I use the purple to symbolize Jesus, red symbolizes, (sic) yellow symbolizes heaven, green symbolizes earth, black symbolizes nothingness, and the blue symbolizes the pathway to heaven and hell. I also think of abstract art as art and physics (sic) combined. With the differential equality and the inertia (flowing) of the picture.” ~~~ “Abstract painting really has opened my eyes to other art forms. Before you came to my classroom I never imagined expressing my feelings through abstract art. Abstract art used to seem like an art form for artists who could not paint realism. But your artwork and presentation helped open my eyes from their once closed state to view abstract art in other ways. Letting us paint abstract art was also very special because it helped me put my feelings down on paper in ways that I couldn't before. Although I may be a beginner, a rookie to this new art style, I hope someday I can become the painter I like to be. I would like to be able to express my feeling in new ways while still creating works of art.” ~~~ “I didn't realize before how little I understood abstract art. I would look at a painting and just see colors smeared all over a canvas and I wouldn't be affected in anyway. Now I understand that behind the colors the artist is expressing their feelings or conveying a message. Thank you very much for spending your time with us to help us understand abstract art. I think that while painting I dug up some of my own emotions that I didn't realize I had.” ~~~ “I had an incredible time in our class last week. I am so grateful that you explained reappearing traits of your paintings so I could better understand the meaning in your work. I especially found the reappearance of God in the top right corner and you as a circle interesting. It makes me want to develop my own style and different traits to define myself. Abstractness is an amazing and beautiful technique in art, and you helped me to understand it better. I was even surprised at my own accomplishment in the class, and how abstractness helped me to express my feelings. Above all, I had fun painting and creating under your influence. Thank you for dedicating your time and your knowledge of art to my class. It was an experience I won't forget.” ~~~ I don't know how much you have done for me in just a couple of hours. You have shown me another way of expressing my feelings through paint and paper. When I painted my picture I felt mixed up foggy and unclear. And that came through in my art. Thank you ever so much. And I don't know any other way to tell you. You have opened doors for me on how to express my feelings. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You may not know how much I want to thank you.” ~~~ “You gave us a wonderful opportunity to paint with acyrlics and illustrate our emotions in a unique way, different to how we have learned in previous art classes. I feel tremendously grateful for the time you spend teaching us about the balance of the tones of all the colors and about the emotion and depth you put into your product. Thank you very much for the gift you have given our class. I am forever grateful.” |