Thursday, December 20, 2012

Teaching the Art of Mandalas to Kids


     One of the classes I teach in my studio is to 6-7 year olds. I love this class. Well, I have to admit, that I love all my classes. Each group is unique and has its own personality.  I truly feel privileged that this is my job!!!  People coming together every week, to create together and connect in my studio. It’s a beautiful thing.
     Kids have a special way of seeing the world. Pablo Picasso said "It took me 4 years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." This is because as we grow up we are influenced by society and life; and our insecurities and our life experiences influence our creativity. I think what Picasso meant when he said this was that it took him a lifetime of painting to get back to that feeling of painting like a child. You can be taught to paint (not all of us to the level of Raphael  or Picasso! ), but to get back to that childlike excitement of painting, to experience art as a child, the feel of mixing colors and touching different mediums….that's what we need to get back to! I try to teach that to all my students. But for this class, I don’t need to! They still have it!  And a lot of times I learn from them. I learn to see art and artists through their eyes.  This week I decided to try to teach them about Mandalas. I wrote about Mandalas in my blog a few weeks ago and I have taught this to grown up students, but never to kids. It was an amazing experience and I wanted to share it with you.
     I started the class talking about what a Mandala is and showed them images of different Mandalas from all over the world and different cultures. We talked about how a Mandala is a way for us to express ourselves in a special way and connect with ourselves and the world around us. I had them close their eyes and do a little meditation exercise. It was very cute to see their reactions to this. My 7 year old daughter is in this class and I have been doing meditation with her since she was 3 years old. She uses breathing techniques all the time to help herself get through hard situations. When she is really upset, she will go to a corner, close her eyes, and just concentrate on her breathing – in and out -  it works every time! But, here she was the top giggler at the beginning! They were a bit self-conscious, but soon got into it. I had them focus on their breathing - in and out - and then told them to think of something they wish for, or a prayer or a thought for someone in their life. I told them to imagine this wish/prayer as a little light in their heart growing as they breathe in and out, growing and warming their body as it spreads through them and out around them to a circle surrounding them. I then told them to open their eyes and to draw a mandala starting in the middle of the page and like the light starting in their heart and growing out, to draw the Mandala starting in the center and growing out. I got the idea for this lesson from a website on Mandalas- http://illuminatedrose.com/mandala_kids.htm 
     The Mandalas that they drew were AMAZING!!!  I put out on the table A LOT of different materials for them to experiment with and express themselves through. We had collage, paints, pastels, markers and different brushes and stamps, finger painters and combs to play with texture and let’s not forget the 6-7 year olds favorite- GLITTER!!!. They really got into the paints and the colors; experimenting with different textures. Since I got permission from their parents I would like to share their work with you. I hope you enjoy seeing what they did as much as I 
enjoyed watching them create them!  





Amazing, Right?!

After class, my daughter was helping me to clean up the studio and there was A LOT of paint left over and papers that had been used and discarded. So we decided to make use of it all, and used the leftover paint to turn all that paper into amazingly unique textured papers that we can now use for other projects! Boy, did we have fun doing that! Here is an example of some paper we made and my very creative daughter’s work of art- notice her eye showing through!

Happy creating to us all. And may we all be able to paint like children!






17 comments:

  1. Loved her work and her teacher too!

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  2. Only one thing bothers me about your blog: that I don't live in your country so that my child and I could learn from you! You are such an amazing human being!

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    1. Wow! Thank you! I think I might share more of what my students do here. Its very inspiring.Its always fascinating to see how different everyone's art comes out. I always tell my students, I believe we put a little bit of our souls into our art. That's why no two art works will look the same, even if I tell them all to do the same thing!
      p.s. I do teach on Skype;)

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  3. Amazing what these kids can do. they are not only learning about art, but learning to express themselves...all of the Mandalas are really special. because of your talent, teaching and devotion these future artists are doing really great stuff. I think this is the class for me, do you take Old Ladies (65 year olds)? love keeping up with the wonderful things you do for yourself and others you are very special..

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    1. Thank you. And I do teach a similar class to adults.
      Contact me if you are interested...

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  4. so cute! these kids are really talented. I wish you were around to teach me when I was a kid.
    these kids are lucky to have you as their art teacher- they get so much from you and not just art!
    Miryam

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    1. Yea! An "Anonymous" with a name!! Hi Miryam! and Thank you!!!!

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  5. I think that in order to excel at anything, you must let go of certain inhibitions. Children are often in the correct "zone" / state of mind to just let themselves wander and experiment without worrying so much about it being the "best ever" or what others think. They do it for the sheer joy of creating, and that is an essential element to art. I think that's part of what Picasso meant.

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    1. Exactly! Adults need to try to get back to that "zone" so they can reach their creative potential. As Sir Ken Robinson says;
      "If you're not prepared to be wrong, You'll never come up with anything original."

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  6. So wonderful! Deena, my daughter's last assignment in Art class was to create a Mandala. She was so upset with herself and not being able to do it - she is really convinced that she's "bad" at art - she through up her hands in exasperation and refused to complete the project. Her teacher's response: "OK Aidel. You're done here." I am going to show her your blog post and curious as to what her response will be. I too wish I could bring her to you for classes. She's 14.

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  7. You should also share with your daughter the blog on mandalas. Where do you live?Maybe all our children could learn with Deena over the internet?

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    1. Toronto. I'm game if my daughter & Deena would go for it!

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    2. I am working on getting her to look at it. At first she didn't want to read it, but when I told her how Deena works with the kids first teaches them how to calm themselves through meditation, and then told her that she can see the beautiful results of the children's efforts, I could see that she opened to the idea. Then things got busy and we got distracted again. Will keep it on the computer until - I hope - I can get her to see the page. :) Yes would love to do a Skype class if we can swing it.

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  8. Deena does a great class on Skype. I once was in her home when she had a class with a student in Florida, unreal to watch. It was as if they were in the same room. Interaction, dialogue and creativity came right through. internet class is really cool and affective.

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  9. Torchild- This experience is so typical of how many teachers (?) discourage their students in art and so many other lessons in life. When I was growing up, I had teachers laugh at my art work and also tell me to give up; that this wasn't my strength. And I did give up. After I gave birth to my second child and was not working for awhile, I decided to try another art course. The most amazing thing happened- I found I could draw and paint. Once I had a teacher (in the true sense of the word; like Deena) who let me express myself my way and not force me to fit in a mold, I was able to create.May your daughter find such wonderful teachers in whatever she pursues. Joan

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    1. Thanks Joan. To be fair to the teacher, I'm not saying that she was discouraging of my daughter, just that she certainly didn't know how to ENcourage her after she kind of threw a fit. I think that takes a special talent. Re: what you said about having teachers who let us express ourselves our own way... imagine if life were like that, not just in art class. I am trying to start my own small business and the "classes" I attended nearly killed me. They certainly killed my spirit and it's taken me a year and a half to come back to myself. If only they'd have let me do it "my way", the way that I need to do it in order to succeed.

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