Artasia at Holy Name of Jesus

During week two, I gave all the kids cardboard squares and they were to decorate the square and make it into a landscape. To ground everyone, I taught them all how to assemble a tree out of construction paper – roll up the paper and tape it together. I handed out tape as everyone worked on their roll. Then I encouraged them to decorate their space with tissue paper, construction paper, pipe-cleaners, and acrylic markers. The energy in the room was perceptible – one child was constructing a playground, another was making a castle out of black paper, another was making a double sided space that they could wear on their head like a hat. 

When they were finished, I told them we can now assemble everyone’s square into a city! The kids were excited to fit their piece into the puzzle and they gathered on the floor. I was impressed by their creativity and excitement. They had all used the rolled paper in a different way – some people used it sideways to make a sort of horizontal tube / log to sit on and another had assembled 3 more tubes to make a castle.

One child had clumped up tissue paper into little balls and some marks on the base of the tissue paper. It was a lot more abstract than what some of the other kids had made and I asked him what his inspiration was. “I made a graveyard for my dad’s family members,” I was impressed by his work. I imagined that the tissue paper clumps were spirits or energy that represented the deceased. I was curious about his desire to explore this “adult” theme of death. But I was reminded that children are also aware of death and that they have their own way of representing this concept. In retrospect I realize I missed an opportunity to ask him more questions about his work – how were the materials he chose representative of the graveyard? What was the tissue paper symbolic of? What were the marks symbolizing? When he started, did he set out to make a graveyard? Or did his piece end up as a graveyard? 

As I was lost in the hustle and bustle of the activity, I realized I stepped into an assumption about his work. I wonder what would have come up if I asked him more questions. I think his choice to represent a “dark” place with such bright colours says something about children’s desire to express themselves. 

– Vania