Littluns

"Amazing Grace," by Deborah Woodall

"The audience was stunned
It was appalling
But it's not appalling what they saw
I saw it in a movie once."

-- The Seedy Seeds, "The Push," Count the Days


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Today, a 13-year-old sent me an email from her iPad. A mom informed me that she and her daughter will leave the country for two months on an extended vacation while the husband/father does business in exotic environs of the world. And my little sister didn't know what a "medley" was.

We're letting the next generation down, folks.

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Today, I will do my favorite workshop, "Art Alive!" Seventeen kids at the Harrison Branch of the Cincinnati Public Library will learn about art. We will ask of a number of paintings the 5 W's, ending with "Why?" We will learn how to bring art to life by incarnating it. And the paintings shall become flesh.

"The Walk," by Marc Chagall

Workshops are very self-styled here. We have a basic format that all our teaching artists follow, but we adapt whenever possible. No two classes get the same exact session, because no two classes have the same exact kids. That sounds like lip service, but really, it's not. Workshops add variety to this job.

Most kids have never had to look at paintings this way, with a critical eye. When I tell them the title of this Chagall is "The Walk," I can see their minds chewing on the question begged: Why is it called that if the man is standing still and the woman is flying?

Why, indeed.

I love blowing their minds. For the What section, I show them three paintings in rapid succession: "It's Poppin' Baby, Can You Feel It?" by Marcus Glenn; "Three Women Playing Musical Instruments," by Anonymous; and Picasso's "Three Musicians." The subject in all three paintings is the same: each depicts a musical trio. But now we can discuss How these depictions were made, and Why the painters chose to use radically different styles to show the same What.

"It's Poppin' Baby, Can You Feel It?" by Marcus Glenn

"Three Women Playing Musical Instruments," by Anon.

"Three Musicians," by Pablo Picasso

At the end of the workshop, they split into groups and I pass out paintings they've never seen. They have to analyze a painting on their own, answering the 5 W's and preparing to act it out. It is theatrical education at its best:

Who are they? Characters.

What are they doing? Action.


When and where? Setting.


Why? Motivation, style.

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Anyways, I'm off to said workshop, to help save a generation from technology, entitlement and ignorance. When I return, I'll have to draw a banana.