Art Blog Early Spring - Memory Project Portraits and More



We are proud to announce that our Memory Project portraits are now on display! The original portraits have just been delivered to the Philippines but these prints are here for you to enjoy. 



The Memory Project is a charitable nonprofit organization that invites artists to help cultivate global kindness by creating portraits for children around the world who have faced substantial challenges, such as violence, war, extreme poverty, neglect, and loss of parents. Participants create portraits to help children feel valued and important, to know that many people care about their well being, and to provide a special childhood memory in the future. Since 2004, more than 130,000 portraits have been created for children in 47 countries. Here at Abintra, 24 more were recently created. Our artists were matched with children of the Philippines and each made portraits of their selected child. You can view a beautiful video of children receiving the portraits here.


Attached to the back of each original portrait our artists put a small photo of themselves and wrote, in Filipino, a short note of introduction and warm wishes. 







The making of portraits is an intimidating adventure for artists of any age, but our students were excited to take on the challenge. The Memory project is such a wonderful way to express good will and to help cultivate kindness and empathy. For more information about this project please take a look at their web site - www.memoryproject.org

Also currently on exhibit are many "Color Wheel" and "Tints and Shades" paintings. Our color theory explorations led to many great conversations about the power of color as a form of communication and how color can influence our emotions and actions. The color wheel provides an understandable model for discussing complementary, analogous, warm, cool, and neutral colors. The process of mixing color, while certainly fun and interesting, can lead to greater perception of color in the world around us. This practice can also guide our young artists in making more considered and nuanced choices while making their work. 










Also on display are many colorful papier-mâché masks made by Lower School 3 and Upper School 1 students. We looked at examples of masks both ancient and contemporary from various cultures, noting that they often represent supernatural beings, ancestors, animals, and fanciful or imagined figures. 





Comments

  1. Thank you John! Would love to see a video of your explanation about the process the children go through from being intimidated and to deciding to take on the challenge :-)

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