From My Heart to Yours by Vickie Luther https://padlet.com/vluther2/orddctix8xfj0fsg a transparent moment in time en-us 2020-06-14 19:31:46 UTC 2023-05-25 12:42:56 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f618.png Social Commentary Art: Real Issues, Real Life vluther2 https://padlet.com/vluther2/orddctix8xfj0fsg/wish/626272067 Hello my amazing art students,

I thought I would share with you a few reasons why I love teaching and creating art. Teaching allows me to help students see themselves and the world around them more clearly. Making art is my earnest "soul expression" to the things I see around me. As an artist, any mark I make, whether good or bad, records my artistic journey. My response to art is often a response to life.

In 1992, I was living in Los Angeles, CA at the time of a heated crisis in the city. An unarmed black man named Rodney King, was brutally beaten at the hands of the police. Riots ensued and most of the city was set to fire. In the aftermath, artists were hired to create murals all over the city. I was hired to work with 4th and 5th-graders at Hyde Park Elementary School in an inner-city neighborhood. This school was near Normandy Street, an infamous street corner, where many people were hurt as protestors responded with violence.

 It was the first time I did a mural project with elementary students. It brought great joy to my heart to create art with new faces and common goals. We created art as a message. The big idea was to bring hope to elementary kids while they were on the playground after chaos still surrounded them.

Our original mural statement read:
As fish we exist...we swim by faith...in nurtured waters we are safe. 
We nibble on knowledge as we prepare for college.
We soon learned we didn't have enough space, so the kids edited the message.

DISCUSSION QUESTION:
1.  How does today's social injustice issues resemble what was happening back in 1992 in Los Angeles, CA?
2. Let's brainstorm: How can we as artists, bring "art as a message" to others?
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