Exhibition Celebrating the Publication of “The Story of the Kaki Tree”
Guest Artist Workshop No.4
“Let’s Draw A Family Portrait! Let’s Draw Peace Just As You Like!”
By Sankakuma
Guest artist “Sankakuma” is a group of artists based in Kumamoto, which consists of painter, contemporary artist, researcher, curator and art student. Normally, each of them pursues one’s artistic interests in own way, but they joined as a team this time as they agreed with the purpose of the Kaki Tree Project. The workshop’s theme was “Family Bond.”
Participating family members were asked to pair up, and look at and draw a portrait each other. The artists made them do so because they think that facing and having honest communication with the person close to you would be the first step to get people interested in peace in the community and the world.
Children who participated in the workshop looked at the drawing materials with great interest. Their mothers and aunts seemed to be a bit apprehensive and were not sure whether they could draw a portrait, and their children could keep concentrating on drawing for an hour and a half. There was a briefing session for the workshop at first. The team asked participants to add the partner’s favorite things by asking and communicating “What are your recent favorites?” “What types of plays do you do?” The team members would also draw portraits of the adult-child pairs at work and present their works to them as keepsakes of the workshop.
The pairs started to move their hands when the workshop started while muttering as they were a bit embarrassed to face each other. While children were accustomed to drawing their parents, mothers were not. They kept drawing with hesitation, nevertheless. They seemed to be surprised at personal aspects of the other that they were unaware of, and some of them expressed astonishment, like “What, you like such a play now?” The team member artist and curator talked to the pairs as they walked around the room. They approached a child who had almost stopped drawing and talked to the child “What did you draw?” “If you use this pencil this way, you will get interesting lines,” to encourage to continue. Maybe because of this, all the participants kept drawing and finished their works.
Finally, they presented their works in front of others. The drawings that they had intimately engaged in captured the characteristics of the other and were filled with love. As one of the pairs presented one’s work and introduced its partner in front of others, they seemed to like each other more, and the entire room was enwrapped in the warmth. The guest artists’ works of the pairs also seemed to depict a warm feeling surrounding them. Children looked quite happy to receive the works from the guest artists maybe because their sincerity while drawing the pairs impressed the children. A comment of a mother “I spent a wonderful time because I could discover good qualities of my child,” was impressive. Although children did not use words to express their feelings, they must have felt the same way as they happily went home holding three pictures and adult’s hand.
