We were in Bangalore for a week and looking for opportunities to paint with communities and a friend put us in touch with a small art-school named Art-Beat in Bangalore.
We had a small telephonic chat and decided to meet Namratha who runs the art-beat school where kids of different ages come and learn to make art.
When we met Namratha, we realized that she had read everything about us and she exactly knew what she wants from us. A quick workshop with his kids in one of the afternoons.
Meenakshi had a look at the material they had and she decided to make installation art as kids haven’t been introduced to that form yet in the school.
We requested Namratha not to tell much about us to the kids and ask them to bring some material from their home. Things about which they feel that it can be turned into an art.
Namratha wanted something concrete to be done so that she can put it as a display at the art-beat. We agreed incorporating the traditional canvas and colors into our scheme of things and Namratha seemed convinced with our plans.
On the workshop day, Something interesting happened. We got down from the auto. Picked the baby, stroller and one bag and forgot the other important bag in the auto.
The moment we entered art beat, Jey noticed that he had left the bag in the auto. He panicked, went out and saw one auto around hundred meters ahead.
What went into Jey’s mind, only he knows but he ran like a sprinter and shouted the auto to stop. We were lucky that day. Auto stopped and it was the same auto. The bag was there. Jey took the bag and came back just to be told by Meenakshi that all her jewelry was in that bag by mistake.
It was a freaky thing to happen that day. Jey was shaken for few moments but then color and art made him happy.
We divided the kids in groups and asked them to think of a design with the things they have carried from home. with the brainstorming they came up with few ideas like.
- Parking for the spiderman’s car
- A boat in sea
- A stage where a singer is performing
- A face made of a box
- Sun to be made with the help of small balls and ribbons
And then everyone started work on their projects. Slowly things started coming up.
Wires got stitched. Ribbons got pasted. Boat became colorful. A stage was created.
When they made their little things, We asked them to pick up a spot on the canvas and paste it over there.
While pasting their small projects they realized the white spaces in the canvas and someone suggested to paint those spaces.
Since these kids knew how to paint on a canvas, they were fast enough to mix the colors and paint. They finished the whole project in less than three hours and thats how we got
- A red car parked on a spider web
- The boat in the blue waters
- A stage for a performance
- A face with a box
- And the Sun
Finally we asked all the kids about what they liked the most. The boat in the blue waters was liked by all of them. Some of them liked the red car as well but when we asked how does it look all the things together on the canvas their answer was unanimous——Its looking fabulous and we had never done anything like this before.
