project assessment & reflection
The PPR art class was a really wonderful aspect of my practicum. My experience with refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Mauritania, Sudan, and Syria was humbling. It was an honor and a pleasure to get to know some of them, to hear their stories of pain and hope, and to witness the sacred act of creative expression.
The art project that we did over the course of a few months was to create a “book” about themselves. The book, a vessel to contain stories, reflections, questions, dreams, served as a beautiful metaphor and for the story of their lives. The first class focused on using paper, markers, colored pencils, magazine cut-outs, and glue to make the cover. The cover, the first thing that a reader or observer sees, represents what the creator/author desires that the outside world sees first about them. The subsequent pages were focused on various themes such as meaningful advice someone had shared with them, life chapters that were painful, life chapters filled with hope, and developing illustrations of memories, their homeland, and their family and mentors – their “cast of characters.” The participants had stories of their past, present, and future. This project sparked my creativity and inspired me to think of future art projects that are meaningful, healing, and introspective.
The elders mural book required a different set of skills and organization. The entire project was a collaboration, but the book that documented the mural project, required a great deal of independent work. Despite many challenges to making significant and timely progress, I think I strengthened my time management, communication, organizational, and creative skills. At this moment (December 4, 2015), the book is still not complete in part due to the aforementioned challenges, and also in part due to the extra creative elements I decided to add to the book, such as creating documents for an appendix and making watercolor images related to Bhutan. Thus far, I am proud of the current state of the final draft and look forward to sharing it with the teaching artists and the community of Bhutanese elders before it is submitted for final printing. I feel grateful for the opportunity to create a book that highlights this amazing project with a special group of Bhutanese elders.
The art project that we did over the course of a few months was to create a “book” about themselves. The book, a vessel to contain stories, reflections, questions, dreams, served as a beautiful metaphor and for the story of their lives. The first class focused on using paper, markers, colored pencils, magazine cut-outs, and glue to make the cover. The cover, the first thing that a reader or observer sees, represents what the creator/author desires that the outside world sees first about them. The subsequent pages were focused on various themes such as meaningful advice someone had shared with them, life chapters that were painful, life chapters filled with hope, and developing illustrations of memories, their homeland, and their family and mentors – their “cast of characters.” The participants had stories of their past, present, and future. This project sparked my creativity and inspired me to think of future art projects that are meaningful, healing, and introspective.
The elders mural book required a different set of skills and organization. The entire project was a collaboration, but the book that documented the mural project, required a great deal of independent work. Despite many challenges to making significant and timely progress, I think I strengthened my time management, communication, organizational, and creative skills. At this moment (December 4, 2015), the book is still not complete in part due to the aforementioned challenges, and also in part due to the extra creative elements I decided to add to the book, such as creating documents for an appendix and making watercolor images related to Bhutan. Thus far, I am proud of the current state of the final draft and look forward to sharing it with the teaching artists and the community of Bhutanese elders before it is submitted for final printing. I feel grateful for the opportunity to create a book that highlights this amazing project with a special group of Bhutanese elders.