In My Heart

Valentine's Day is this week, so Mind Move Make students are focusing on sending kind wishes to the people they love, the practice of loving kindness!  Loving kindness develops compassion for other people and strengthens emotional intelligence.  Research shows that practicing loving kindness creates beneficial changes in the brain by increasing positive emotions and decreasing negative emotions.  It also leads to a sense of gratitude for all the people we have in our lives.

After playing a movement game that involves learning every one's names, we read a book called In My Heart by author and illustrator Molly Bang.  In My Heart is about a mother who is explaining to her son that even when they are apart he lives inside her heart all the time.  No matter what she is doing, he is there with her in some capacity.  The mother tells her little boy that he carries all the people he loves the most within his heart also. 

This is my favorite image from the book.  It is an illustration of the little boy sleeping, and all the people he loves are still with him:

After discussing the book I asked the children to picture all the people they love resting inside their own hearts.  Then I asked them to select one person who they see everyday, a person who makes them very happy, and visualize this person.  "Imagine that this person is happy and peaceful, doing something he or she loves to do." I said.  I explained that we would be sending their loved one kind thoughts.  "Repeat these ideas in your head after I say them out loud," I said.  I paused after each phrase, allowing the message to sink in and giving time for reflection.  These were the kind wishes we sent:

May you be safe

May you be healthy and strong

May you be happy

May you be peaceful

I gave the students time to send kind wishes in their own words by giving them space and silence.  Looking around the room, all the children were focused and immersed in thoughts of their loved ones.  After practicing together I gave the children the opportunity to share who they were thinking about and how the practice made them feel.  I explained that this was optional and that they were welcome to say "pass" if they did not want to share.  Everyone agreed that practicing loving kindness made them feel good, and most students chose to share who they were thinking about.

For the art portion of the class, the students cut out a heart shape and drew all the people they love most in their own hearts.  They could either use pencil or permanent marker.  Here are some images of the students' drawings.

  

Mind Move Make Art Show

Mind Move Make students had the opportunity to participate in an art show at Miss Zumstein's Bakery in Northeast Portland!  Julie Jansen, teacher and founder of Mind Move Make, collaborated with her four-year-old son to create a series of artwork.  This work was featured at Miss Zumstein's Bakery during the month of February, 2018.  She chose to also include artwork from her Mind Move Make students.  The Mind Move Make work exhibited was in connection with the Imagination unit.
Along with the regular Mind Move Make students, Julie also worked with children from her son's preschool.  All of the children were asked three questions:

What is the imagination?
Are all imaginations the same or are they different?
Where does your imagination live within your body?

Here are some pictures from the art show, both of the children's work and the collaborative work Julie made with Harlow.

Artwork by Alameda and The International School Students

Artwork by Alameda and The International School Students

Artwork from The Peanut Gallery Preschool

28 Studies by Julie and Harlow

Installation by Julie and Harlow

Installation by Julie and Harlow

Installation View

Here is Julie's artist statement from the show:

Harlow and I began creating this artwork together one year ago.  He was on the verge of turning three and I wanted to once again engage in the creative process on a deeper level.  After having two children it became difficult to find the time or the energy to make work.  My process needed to connect with other parts of my life so that one thing could more easily flow into another.  Exploring how everyday life intersects with art and practice I worked with the elements that exist around me: my son’s hands and immeasurable energy, his drawings, paintings, and developing language, and fascinating objects we discovered along our path.  This work attempts to blur the lines between different aspects of my life and bring a sense of wholeness.  

Most of the objects in the show were gathered on walks through our neighborhood, visits to the park, and explorations in the backyard.  To a three-year-old child, the experience of holding a stick or rock, feeling its form, and bringing it home becomes an important, urgent matter.  Place, time, and movement are all contained within each item presented.  This collection becomes a curation of our movement through time and physical space, an unusual documentation of moments whose beauty overflow the boundaries of otherwise mundane objects.  

Collaborating with Harlow became an exercise in letting go.  In trading the artwork back and forth I would watch as my favorite parts of a drawing or painting disappeared as he altered the piece into a new incarnation.  Our collaboration also brought a playful attention to the present moment as we observed colorful drips slowly travel down the paper, experimented in painting with sticks, and mixed new colors in a Harlow-esque palate.  

Both questions and ideas presented themselves through the process of creating this work.  Some sources of inspiration include childbirth, phytoplankton, charnel grounds, ferns, blandness, looking at plants on a cellular level, and contemplating what would happen if humans and plants could become hybrid creatures.  Walking through our neighborhood, gentrification and change cannot be ignored.  Much of the wood gathered here is from a house that we watched as it was slowly demolished, then we witnessed as two new homes were built as replacements observing acts of displacement and upheaval.  Through this work I question our current curatorial practice.  What is and isn’t art, what is good, and who decides?  How is beauty contained within an object?