Tending to art

The morning started out gray, windy, humid, and threatening to storm. I wasn't in the best mood, but I went to my daughter's school to hang some art.

These collage portraits in the style of Romare Bearden done by fourth grade students at Casey Elementary made me happy. Seeing the art changed my mood. I sat on the floor in the front hallway outside the library tearing pieces of masking tape, looping, and sticking the loops to the back of each "person." I looked at how each student had taken pieces of magazines and made eyes, mouths, noses, hair, and clothing. One of my favorites featured a magazine picture of a window across the body-- as if it were a window right through the heart of the body-- right through the soul.

I like tending to art -- especially that of children. When I hang up art at Casey, when I pay close attention to what a child has created, when I photograph children "doing" art, it is a "soulful" task. I always leave the interaction changed and enlivened.