When Shari Densel and her collegues visited Morija I had little idea that their visit would sow the seeds of such inspiration. I have long believed that art is a language and that this language should be one that is able to join people living in far flung places in a profound communication. That this will be happening with students who are at the beggining of the long and extraordinary journey in the discovery of art is fitting and something really worth celebrating. My own sense as an artist is that I always yearn to return to that seminal moment when I first began making art; the first brushmark, the first smeared colour. The beginning of the journey.
Now we have seventy or so students from two vastly different continents about to discover that art making is a profound language and that these ideas are indeed more than just the rantings of a slightly dipsy art teacher.
As I am slightly ahead of Shari and her students as far as time tables go, I have been able to broach the subject with my group of students. The idea was met with some bemusement at first but soon the students began enthusiastically scribbling away at a random coollection or series of connections showing the beggining of their unfolding ideas of who exactly they see themselves as being. "Who am I?" will be followed eventually by "Where do I fit into the world?"
I am a relatively inexperienced blogger but as I get the hang of it I will include portraits in words and pictures and videos of each of the students. Hopefully as this happens, I will be able to take more and more of a back seat and the students, boisterous, noisy and full of life, will be able to take over. In the immortal words of Brancusi we will find here no great mysteries or hidden formulas but simply pure joy.
Thankyou Shari and thankyou to your collegues and from Morija, Lesotho I say: "Let us begin. Let us take the first steps, however tentative they seem."
