The Language of Art
Friday was my school's open day. Generally, it was a time for prospective students and their families to visit while students put on different displays, and of course the students had time to roam around and check out what was on too. I had to set up in the art room and draw some still life for an hour while parents walked in and observed. It was fairly pedestrian, until one of the international boarding students from my year, who I had never spoken to, walked in.
He just sat across the table from me and watched me draw for maybe fifteen minutes straight. We got talking, this Chinese student, Frank, and I, though of course it was difficult. I showed him my art book with all my previous projects I had done in it, so he walked off and flicked through that for a while. Up until this point, I was convinced he was just watching me from sheer boredom rather than anything else. But then, this guy who I could barely understand, comes up to me pointing to my art workbook and says one word:"Amazing."
I knew he wouldn't have understood what I had written (I'm fairly sure Chinese students learning English don't learn how to describe the rhythm of an artwork) yet my drawings in my art book had really left an impression on him. And I was so stunned yet so happy. He was also looking at a brainstorm I did about myself at the start of the year, and he was also so interested in my thinking in what I'd written down about what I thought of myself. Slowly, but through my art, we got talking about the importance of knowing ourselves and our common interest of art.
I ended up walking back to the lockers with him and talking for a little while longer before making a new friend.
I guess I had never really taken my art seriously before this. Sure, I know I'm not a horrible artist, but I had never thought that what I had drawn could leave an impression on someone in that way. I felt like crying from happiness after we'd finished talking and I felt like I was on a high of happiness for the rest of the month. I'm even more resolved now to make my portfolio for my end of year high school assessment which I start mid-year to include some of the greatest things I've ever created.
Just a little something there I wanted to record to look back on later. :)
- Emily I.
He just sat across the table from me and watched me draw for maybe fifteen minutes straight. We got talking, this Chinese student, Frank, and I, though of course it was difficult. I showed him my art book with all my previous projects I had done in it, so he walked off and flicked through that for a while. Up until this point, I was convinced he was just watching me from sheer boredom rather than anything else. But then, this guy who I could barely understand, comes up to me pointing to my art workbook and says one word:"Amazing."
I knew he wouldn't have understood what I had written (I'm fairly sure Chinese students learning English don't learn how to describe the rhythm of an artwork) yet my drawings in my art book had really left an impression on him. And I was so stunned yet so happy. He was also looking at a brainstorm I did about myself at the start of the year, and he was also so interested in my thinking in what I'd written down about what I thought of myself. Slowly, but through my art, we got talking about the importance of knowing ourselves and our common interest of art.
I ended up walking back to the lockers with him and talking for a little while longer before making a new friend.
I guess I had never really taken my art seriously before this. Sure, I know I'm not a horrible artist, but I had never thought that what I had drawn could leave an impression on someone in that way. I felt like crying from happiness after we'd finished talking and I felt like I was on a high of happiness for the rest of the month. I'm even more resolved now to make my portfolio for my end of year high school assessment which I start mid-year to include some of the greatest things I've ever created.
Just a little something there I wanted to record to look back on later. :)
- Emily I.