What is art? It is looking at the world in a different way. As a “member” of the art group here in Santa Ana I made it a goal for myself to show the world under a different light.
Sketching the donkey
Right now I can only speak about the part of the wall I painted and supervised which is only a small part of all that this group has accomplished so far. I painted a donkey surrounded by colors and I wrote on that same wall (with some help) a poem by Federico García Lorca that I had learned in the USA. I realize that when people will look at the painting of the donkey on the wall they will have no clue what it means, and that is the point. I want children in the school to see the painting every day and wonder every time about it.
Isn’t the feeling of mystery one of the most exciting human feelings? Einstein thought so. For the poem, I am really glad I wrote it on the wall. As I was painting the letters, the children would come around and read it aloud. That immediately persuaded me I had had a good idea. One French writer thought that one could be a scholar if one knew very well at least one piece of good, written work.
Drawing and learning
When you see that same poem every day painted on a wall, you start to get interested in it and you learn it, and then you reflect upon it. To me, poetry is an eye-opener, and I think that everyone should have the opportunity to experience it. I suppose the children in this school do study some poetry, but I remember poetry I studied when I was that age, and it was nothing like García Lorca, more like, “Today I am going to school/Tomorrow to the swimming pool.” I do not have the pretension to be able to judge what good poetry is, but I do want to share what is important to me with other people.
Eva Bessette, a student at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School