As a printmaking artist, I was elated at the thought of Week 1’s activities, and it did not disappoint. Working with the school-age kids, they picked up all kinds of different textures, ranging from leaves & rocks to fingerprints & ants. There was one child in particular who began using a stick as a fountain pen, dipping it into the ink to write a book for her mother. I was astonished by this child’s creativity, immediately flooded with mental images of cavemen discovering fire & learning how to write. I asked how she thought to use the stick as a pencil, and she responded, “The clay [felt] like writing [so I] wanted to do [printmaking] and write to my mom.” Her ambition was inspiring. It filled me with excitement, thinking about the future inventions and discoveries that the next generation will bring to the world. If a young child can discover a writing method using found, organic objects, then these children must be capable of even greater feats later down the line. The support they need, especially coming from teaching & educational positions, is integral to fostering their curiosity and creativity, as she likely would not have cultivated this artistry had it not been for her participation in the Artasia program.

This same child was also one of the only children who committed to the activity for the entire hour-and-a-half session. Most other participants, after about 30 – 45 minutes, had shifted their attention elsewhere, but this child kept printmaking– and when printmaking started losing her interest, she evolved the art activity into her own story-making medium with the stick-pen and ink. It was great to see such focused creativity in traditional artforms, especially when I think about how we as a society are developing cultural ADHD. Every day, I see people glued to their phone screens, consuming content that continually turns shorter and shorter, thus training our brains to seek out dopamine-generating media while ignoring long-form content. In the midst of our technological age growing increasingly dependent on the internet, it was refreshing to see a young person find ways to keep a traditional art activity fun & engaging.

I have a personal belief that raising children on technology as a means to regulate their emotions is a detriment to their integration in the world as a functioning human. Seeing this child pursue a stick-pen & paper, rather than an expensive screen, restored my hope for society to return to a more traditional & less capitalistic mode of hobbies & entertainment.