About Visual Conversations TM
"How would you like to have a visual conversation?" Jennifer Wadsworth asked me one day in the fall of 2004. "I'll give you a painting and you respond with a painting. The only rule is, no using words to explain what you are 'saying'. " Visual Conversations were off and running... When Cheryl Oakes took my watercolor class in January of 2005, she mentioned that children are visual learners, and that she usually uses a visual "prompt" to get her grades 1-4 computer classes started. This prompted me to ask her if her classes would like to join the conversation. An NPR program called " Gray Matters" talked about how important the arts are in wiring the brains of young children. They found that children raised with the arts are also more accepting of diversity. It seemed like the next logical step and the right thing to do to include the children in the PROCESS. Cheryl used Power Point and a large screen to show the first 13 images in one of our conversations. ( You can also see these images under the "Visual Conversation" portfolio on this site.) She linked to Jennifer's website www.gulfislandart.com and clicked on Visual Conversations. The children were asked," What do you see in this painting or how does it make you feel?" After looking at the paintings and responding to these questions, the children were asked if they could create a response to one or more of the images using a program called Image Blender.
THERE ARE NO WRONG ANSWERS!!!
The energy this process has created has been phenomenal. Jennifer and I have found that it spills over into other areas of our lives as well. Artists are exchanging via parcel post, the Alternative Education students in Turner, Me. have joined the process and we have approached a musician about creating musical responses to ours and the children's images. New ideas for the use of this PROCESS arise daily. I capitalize "process" because that is what it is about. It is not about our artwork but about the energy that is created through sharing, non-verbally, with another human being. We envision responses in movement and dance as well. Others are responding with words to our images. we believe that this process opens RECEPTIVE channels that open your mind to new ways of thinking and processing information. Ask another, and try it yourself.
In the Fall of 2005 Cheryl Oakes won one of two awards for TECHNOLOGY TEACHER OF THE YEAR in Maine for engaging her students in this process.
SHARING WITH OTHERS IS THE KEY TO CREATIVITY