We invited the afternoon children to uncover stories in another way. Working in small groups with loose parts and a painting, the stories slowly unfolded.
This is just one story sample.
Moss mountain. Beautiful ocean. The big bear wolf, do do do! This is an ancient gem. The Moss mountain is the biggest mountain. Don’t ever forget the mountain. This is the scariest part of the whole river and monsters. They’re hiding. I’m making a new place, the ocean. You can’t come through the ocean cuz of the bad guys. A mountain of gems. Sea glass bridge, isn’t it beautiful? The bad guys are stuck in the white. That’s (painting) a monster under it! CHESTER
We wondered how the children might author the story of another painting. The painting by Dana C. Chandler Jr. entitled The Ghetto.
He looks kind of droopy. CHESTER
He looks really sad and droopy because his house is torn down. His tears are going straight down. CHARLIE
It looks like he has an open book. VIVIAN
He is sad because he has so much work to do. SEVI
Cuz it’s messy and he doesn’t want his house to be messy. JANE
Everything in his house is getting washed away. BROOKE
He’s sad because the walls are torn up. The windows are cracked. He’s sad cuz his house is all torn down. LYLA
He might call someone to repaint them. And to clean up. CHESTER
I see blue lines on his face and red lines. BIRDIE
I see black mountains and a river. He has a red mouth and a blue mouth, making him think about the river. Everything in his house washed away. BROOKE
He looks like he has so much ink in his house. SEVI
The flood outside. It looks like floods, there is so much blue in it. He might be scared that his house might get flooded. GRAEME
His neighbor has a broken window. The red around the window is blood. ZAARHA
His face looks flooded with water on it. CHESTER
I was thinking about the man sadly and the trash. All that trash. SEVI
I’m wondering what the artist was thinking about. If he was here we could ask him. LYLA
(these are excerpts from two conversations)
