Wednesday, November 02, 2016

Healing through Art

Kanavu Pattarai, our Workshop of Dreams is on at CSI school in Sriperambadur, Kancheepuram district in Tamil Nadu.   

These are healing workshops for underprivileged children where they identify their most troubling personal issues, find solutions to common social problems, work on building themselves and their community.   

Yesterday, with clouds threatening to rain, 26 excited and restless children of Standard 8 could not wait for the workshop to begin.   

Activity for the day - Drawing Modern Art based on an personal impactful life incident.  

Boys meditating 

Girls contemplating harder 

The children were seated in a circle and were asked to meditate for a few minutes.   With eyes remaining closed, and the sound of waves playing from a speaker, the children were asked to imagine one sad and one happy memory from their lives.   The feelings and details from that day were asked to recollect.  A few minutes after this, the children were instructed to use colours and patters that best described their emotions on that day.  The painting would be their diary, a personal journal where they record their feelings. 




Drawing with complete focus

It was amazing to see what the children came up with - 

  • Immense anger due to abandonment by father and mother struggling to make a living 


  • Distress when watching parents fight 


  • Happy on remembering day out at the beach 


  • Spending time with friends giving great pleasure 



Art in making 
It was touching to watch children get in touch with their emotions and paint it gloriously.  What better modern art?