I have just begun a six-week class called "Creative Jumpstart" hosted by Nathalie Kalbach. Every day for six weeks, a different artist teaches a class in his or her media. I took it last year and enjoyed it so much I signed up for more inspiration for 2021.
2021--How I love saying 2021~
As the workshop begins, three of the teachers do a group discussion. Nat is from Germany and lives in New Jersey, Julie Fei-Fan Balzer lives in Boston, and Birgit Koopsen lives in The Netherlands. These three friends have traveled a great deal together and it's fun to see how their friendships began and flowered over decades.
Julie referenced this video which I posted years ago, but I'm going to post it again because it is so good!
The theme of this year's CJ is "storytelling," so this is apropos to the ways that different artists tell stories--some with visual art, some with screenplays and fiction, others in poetry.
It's also appropriate to our times in America--when we see how the allegiance to a single story, or a single point of view, can limit understanding of people who come from different cultures or have beliefs so different from our own.
How do we make sense of all the many things that have happened to us? How do we tell the stories of our own tender times and adventures and growth?
Whether we do it with words or notes or brushstrokes, the telling of stories is what connects us and enlarges our understanding of this great big world and its people.
No comments:
Post a Comment