Kids Art in Japan

THE CHRISTMAS TREE

Kids love to paint. In fact they paint with everything they touch. Food, liquids, objects, anything that can be swooshed around. Painting is very primitive, just scratching on stone was an essential baptism anointing us to nature and affirming our individual creative stamp in the universe. Creativity in any form is a mark that we are here with our intelligence. Of course kids just do it, though the wonder is they are not doing it, that is the beauty and freedom of a child painting, they are not thinking about it. We should not teach them to say cheese but rather allow them to be authentic. So as caretakers we are entrusted to protect that grace for as long as they can keep it and they can keep it for the whole life. In Japan during cherry blossom season the trees are overflowing with luscious pink blossoms. There are young trees and very old ones with their gnarled, twisted and broken branches supported with wood crutches. Yet, clustered around the green stems springing out of those old gnarled branches are full blossoms as beautiful as in any young tree.  So here we are in Japan between 1996 and 2006 in Kamakura the ancient capital of Japan during the samurai period. I was teaching English and painting to adults and children in my tiny prewar, wood, tatami, sliding paper doors apt. during hot humid summers and freezing snow cold winters. But then here are the children, watch them, they are totally absorbed painting, can you see in their faces any multitasking. We could achieve the same with years of yoga and meditation. We always ask “how old are you” rather than “how young are you”. Ninad


        Painting the Christmas Tree

WE MADE THIS TREE WITH 3/16 PLYWOOD AND COATED IT WITH GESSO.

THE KIDS USED ACRYLICS TO PAINT ORNAMENTS OR ANYTHING THEY WANTED.

THE TREE WAS ABOUT 7' TALL WITH TRIANGLE BRANCHES FROM 4' ON THE BOTTOM TO 1' ON THE TOP.

THEY GET SO ABSORBED PAINTING THAT HOURS PASS UNNOTICED.

BEAUTY PAINTS AS BEAUTY IS, PURE AND INNOCENT.

JAPANESE KIDS ARE BY NATURE MEDITATIVE SO HAVE A NATURAL INTUITIVE SENSE OF DESIGN

THE INSIDE CORNERS WERE FUN TO PAINT, CREATING A 2 DIMENSIONAL REFLECTIVE SPACE.

THE KIDS LEARNED TO PAINT UP CLOSE AND STEP  BACK TO SENSE THE WHOLE COMPOSITION.

THE GOAL ISN'T ALWAYS THE PAINTING,  BUT WHAT YOU DISCOVER WHILE DOING IT.

WHO WANTS TO PAINT ONLY FINGERNAILS ?

THE TREE KEPT GROWING AND THROUGH ALL THE SEASONS.

EVERY STORY NEEDS A MONSTER