MY THREE STUDENTS

A funny thing happened in June 2007, just as my wife and I were about to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Even though I had never taught art in my life, and was fully self-employed as a writer and designer (in addition to painting the sunrise and sunset every day, of course), within two days of each other two sets of parents asked me if I would teach art to their kids – three children in all. The two families did not know each other. Laura and I have never wanted children, but the strangest aspect was that all of the prospective students were 10 years old (including a pair of fraternal twins).

I said yes, even though I knew that teaching is one of the most difficult of jobs, and particularly for me, as I had already proven when I taught writing at UVa’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. I managed to do well at Darden, but almost everything for that course required my very deliberate effort.

Maybe teaching art to 10-year-olds would be easier.

Ha!

I don’t think it would have mattered much whether or not the kids were very bright or talented, but teaching three very bright and talented children was a challenge.

Truly, I’m not much of a teacher in the sense of being an instructor who conveys information or teaches a set of skills in a systematic way. I am better as a mentor and facilitator, a role I’ve assumed many times with writing and design clients. Luckily for me, to some extent with these kids all I had to do was wind them up and watch them go. 

I’ll describe them individually as artists on their respective pages, but one thing they have in common – and I think this is a compliment to their parents – is a matter-of-fact confidence in their own instincts and ideas that never failed to impress me. They might sometimes insist that they absolutely could not possibly do this or that specific technical thing or handle a certain subject, but that’s beside the point. When it came time to express themselves, they expressed themselves. Which is how I got to know them, I think, really well.

They are three of the most wonderful people I’ve met in my life, and I’ve set up these pages as my tribute to them. 

Lakshmi, Mohan, Willa, thank you.

Saturday
May162009

Lakshmi Danis (Age 11) – “Untitled”

Lakshmi Danis. Untitled. Acrylic on canvas, 10 x 10.Lakshmi has a streak of fearlessness that can be almost intimidating. Sometimes she’ll appear to be in a hesitant, uncertain mood, lacking confidence, and then – without apparent transition – an idea or impulse will come to her and the rest is wonderful art. 

As you can perhaps tell from the photo, the paint here has a lot of texture – the paint circles are dimpled in an impasto on the surface. For a child’s first or second acrylic painting ever, this strikes me as amazing.

Lakshmi does also do figurative art, almost always with a theme or a storyline, and these are usually very personal, as if they’ve come unfiltered out of her unconscious mind. Mohan, her fraternal twin, has commented that his sister’s art tends to be “fantasy” – based on imagination. And so it is.

Saturday
May162009

Lakshmi Danis (Age 11) – “Heart”

Lakshmi Danis. Heart. Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 10.To state the obvious, Lakshmi has a strong sense of design.

Saturday
May162009

Lakshmi Danis (Age 12) – “A Blank Mind”

Lakshmi Danis. A Blank Mind. Chalk pastel on paper, 13 x 23.One of the things I really like about this piece is the title Lakshmi gave it the moment she finished it and I asked her what to call it. I think it’s interesting that the entire time she was illustrating a “blank” mind she was effortlessly making up a long complicated mythic tale, for Mohan and me. It was all about how dogs and squirrels had gotten together and agreed that squirrels would allow themselves to be chased by dogs, but whenever possible without the squirrels getting hurt.

Friday
Jul102009

Lakshmi Danis (Age 11) – “A Wall to Death”

Lakshmi Danis. A Wall to Death. Watercolor pencil on paper, 10 x 14.

After getting permission from both the artist and her parents, I’m able to show you one of the remarkable dream-like drawings Lakshmi generates seemingly from out of nowhere. She depicted this theme at least four times in the span of a year. She’s not upset at all while she’s drawing them; you’d think she was illustrating “A Trip to the Ice Cream Shop.” 

Friday
Jul102009

Lakshmi Danis (Age 11) – “Scrap of Paper”

Lakshmi Danis. Scrap of Paper. Acrylic on watercolor paper, approx. 3.5 x 5.

I’ve titled this for Lakshmi; it was a cut-off piece of watercolor paper that she decided to paint.

Many people, whether children or adults, can start an abstract piece that looks about as nice as this. Few people, whether children or adults, know where to stop. Lakshmi has a discriminating eye for that sort of thing.

This is true: I had to ask Lakshmi recently, did you do this, or did I?