"Just look at that love. It's like a constantly changing work of art. Who would think out of all that old wood from next door, we could warm the whole house and watch blue, red and orange flames flicker and dance like pirouetting ballerinas. You know it was just ash when I put the wood on and suddenly it just fanned into flame. I didn't even use a match to light it. It's changed from old rubbish to a living force." In the darkened room, it was quite a spectacle but the use of the word,' rubbish' took me on quite a journey.
Earlier that day "rubbish" was the exact word a mother said to me in aside, as I handed her, the creative works her son had produced that day.
"Here's more rubbish to get rid of discretely. If I kept all his artworks it would fill the room."
How many mother and fathers have had just that thought? In this case, as with all my students I had asked her son to tell me the story of the painting as it was 'free choice' and I could make no sense of the blobs of colour seemingly daubed indiscriminately over the page.
He looked quite mystified that it wasn't as plain to me, as it was to him.
"The brown", he faltered, "is the earth they put Gran into last week."
"And the red," I encouraged.
"The red is for the colour of Mum's eyes when she cries, and the blue is where Gran is now in heaven."
"But you also have yellow and pink?" I proffered.
"Yes," he smiled, "they are for all the happy times I had with Gran. She made me laugh so much. She tickled me and played tricks. She was like the sunshine."
"And the black?" I asked
"It's for the hole I feel inside because she isn't there anymore. Mum will miss laughing with her and Dad loved her sponge cake. I will miss her hugs"
For a child who volunteered very little in class, this was an extremely verbal outburst with well put together concepts and emotion, which clearly indicated he was observing and feeling very much more than he hitherto had cared to disclose.
Because of the depth of meaning in this particular work, I had taken the time to write the legend of the work and colours on the back, for his parents to reconsider whether this was indeed, "rubbish" or a family treasure and probably their most valued message of condolence.
I indicated to the mum that she should read what was on the back of the work.
Next day I had a phone call from her saying,
"It just goes to show you how wrong you can be. Thanks for taking the time to talk with Joel and alerting us of the meaning of his work."
It wasn't just the old masters who told stories in their work, the dog for fidelity, the petals fallen from the flowers and the timepiece all indicating our immortality or the half eaten apple, showing that all life was on the road to decay. Learning the symbolisms, while interesting, took some of the joy out of simply looking at the work for me and yet they did their job, because they provoked a response and engaged me, the viewer.
A watercolour of four miners' cottages is right at my eye level when I look up from the screen. To anyone else, this would be a lovely water colour reminiscent of a bygone age, tastefully painted by someone who knew the topic and had mastered the skill of water colour to a very high degree. But to me, just looking at the painting evokes challenge, courage and fortitude. Was it because I lived in one? No, but my grandmother did.
As a six weeks old infant she moved in after her father had been killed. The tenacity of her mother saw her bring her six children back to the mining village where she had grown up in the hope that she would be assisted by her family and able to do some piece work to sustain them. Nine years later that same woman buried her father mother, son and brother within the space of a month. Her son and brother having been killed in the Mt Kembla mine explosion in 1902.
My grandmother regularly took me to the area and reminded me to face life with grit and determination, to be thankful for all blessings and overcome disappointments, because a day wasted, was one I would never get back.
Yes, daily I look at the art choices in people's homes and wonder what significance if any, the artwork has for them. It is always a delight when their children's work is on display and regularly updated showing the importance they place on the developing creativity of their child and possibly, learning more about their children as they do so.
Get it right mums and dads because we could be like Joel's mother and nearly miss out on a dimension of our child we didn't know even existed. Our emotions, thoughts and confusions can flow out onto the canvas long before we are able to give them expression in words. Just try it!
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