Introduction

Abstract art explanation

Breathing exercise demo

Music demo

The true work of art is born from the “artist”: a mysterious, enigmatic, and mystical creation. It detaches itself from him, it acquires an autonomous life, becomes a personality, an independent subject, animated with a spiritual breath, the living subject of a real existence of being. Wassily Kandinsky

BREATHE, FEEL, IMAGINE AND CREATE.

Meditative Art-Making Class

I was excited to start this class but initially, I thought hardly anyone would join but later found out that the class was packed and there was a wait list for people to join my class. The first thing I wanted to do before I started this class was to have everything in order and then I took some time to gather myself, my thoughts, my feelings, my emotions, and just sit and breathe for a few minutes as I was finally allowed to get into the classroom a little bit early. The art teacher at the school was so kind and generous towards me. She let me use all her supplies and her computer. I saw the kids lining up and asked them if they were coming to my class and they all said yes. I was assigned a para who has experience with the children in this school. She got all the snacks ready and gave them to the kids as they sat and started munching on their snacks.

 I really wanted to set the tone for my eight-class series of meditative art-making right, so the first thing I did was I introduce myself and ask for everybody's names and what they were interested in doing in an art class. After that, I told them that this would be a meditative art-making class and I asked if anybody had any experience with meditative art-making. They said they did not. I did not expect a yes, but you never know. The next thing I asked was if they like to be stressed and anxious or if they like to be calm and relaxed. Every single one of them said that they wanted to feel calm and relaxed. And then I asked them if they sometimes feel stressed and anxious. They all said that sometimes they feel stressed and anxious, and as they said that I asked them if they would want me to make this meditative art class fun and they all said yes. So, as we started, I asked everyone to do some jumping jacks. They did several jumping jacks and warmed up their body. After that, I asked them to totally relax and focus on their breath. I asked them to gently just observe their breath and inhale in and exhale out. I then had them sit in their chairs with their sit bones grounded, side body long and shoulders drawn back with their palms on their knees and gently ask them to continue to focus on their breath. I was amazed at how focused these little kids were during the breathing activity. One of the younger kindergarten boys was having a little bit of trouble with keeping his eyes closed so I asked him to keep his eyes open so that he could still focus on his breathing. Once we were done with the exercise, I asked everyone how they felt. Every single one of them told me that they felt peaceful and relaxed.

Once we finished the breathing exercises, we watched a story on the life of Wassily Kandinsky which gave them perspective on synesthesia and seeing colors while listening to music. After that, I pulled up a watercolor by Wassily Kandinsky and asked them a few questions related to what kind of lines they saw, what kind of shapes they saw, and what they thought this picture was all about. I got very interesting answers, and it was amazing to see how they quickly understood the difference between abstract and realistic art.

After that exercise, I played some music and asked them to focus on their breath and their emotions as they were listening to the music and asked if they could see any colors as they were listening to the music. It was interesting to hear how many felt happy or saw bright colors as we listened to that music as it was uplifting and happy music. Then I did the same thing with another piece of music that was a bit sad, and it was interesting that the kids connected to that as well. I am glad that my professor gave me some insight into working with kindergarten students, so I made sure that all the materials were provided at their tables and that before they started their art project, they wrote their names and numbers on the back of the papers. After that, I gave them step-by-step instructions on how to create their own abstract compositions incorporating their breath emotions and colors.  

Before they started drawing, I asked them if they were interested in listening to some Indian classical music. They all got very excited and said yes, they would love to listen to some Indian classical music as they made their abstract art. We then went back to the basics of connecting to the breath, the emotions and I asked them to do a little exercise of holding some colors in their hands and connecting to their emotions and seeing what colors would fit that emotion as they started coloring their artwork. As I had set the ground rule that everybody would be focusing on their own artwork, they all stayed very calm and centered and started coloring.

As they were coloring, I noticed that some of them were really hurrying up. I had to stop everyone and say that I was remembering one of my teachers in elementary school who often said to me,

“Hurry Burry Spoils the Curry”. So, I asked them to repeat this after me that Hurry Burry Spoils the Curry and they thought it was hilarious. After that, I gave them an example of how to color slowly and reaffirmed to them that they would be given an ample amount of time to complete their projects. It is sad to observe how hurry is ingrained in children's lives from a very early age because they're used to trying to hurry up and finish one project and then run from one class to the other. I wish we were teaching children how to slow down. I'm hoping that my art classes in the future will be a refuge for children where they can slow down and breathe and create from a place of rest rather than a place of chaos and anxiety.

Ten minutes before the class ended, I checked in with everyone to see how they felt while they created meditative art, and here are a few of the answers:

Morgan: I felt very relaxed and peaceful.

Nate: I felt kind of silly.

Mary: I felt very focused.

Sophia: I felt a bit sad because I was missing my mom. (She got to write a little love note to her mom along with her work)

Dom: I feel very peaceful.

I look forward to teaching them how to slow down a bit more and dive a bit deeper into their breath and emotions and to complete these beautiful pieces of art that they are working on.

Below are some fun moments in the form of videos from the class and some progress in the work that the students are creating.