That's Mosaic

Our plan

My original idea was to create a mosaic with kids living in a group home situation. I know it is important for all kids to learn to express themselves, to communicate, to learn to achieve consensus and to feel empowered to create. It is doubly important for children who have lost their families, been abused or neglected or removed from their birth communities to learn these things and to learn to trust that it is even possible for them to engage with people, adults and kids, on different levels. Mosaic is particularly forgiving, a medium that allows the use of broken materials and the creation of beauty through a shifted paradigm. It seemed ideal for these kids.

What we did

I met with the Assistant Director of Five Acres Home for Children. My friend Annie went with me to show her support of what I can do and her belief in my ability to pull a rabbit out of a hat! We showed Ms. Bette some photos of my past work with children and she approved the project after I submitted a budget. The facility found a grant with a patron, Beth Uffner (to whom I am eternally grateful)! We began the project by showing the kids a "history of mosaic" computer presentation I put together. Then I showed them work that I had done with other kids. At that point they began to focus! "What are WE going to do?" I explained that they would be deciding what we would do and it was my job to support them. I also let them know that if they couldn't decide, I would do so but that it would probably be something really really boring and not as exciting as their ideas. They emerged from the presentation with the excitement of a tidal wave! As we surged toward the multi purpose room where we would begin our work, I asked the kids to look around and show me examples of "mosaic". They began to notice brickwork, roofing tiles, cinderblock patterns, all kinds of things that fit the definition of mosaic they had just learned. Their excitement was near delirium! As the ideas flooded out of the 8 kids chosen to work with me (by their recreation director Lupe Lascano Morales), I carefully noted each idea and made sure I had several ideas from each kid. After the kids left, I measure the area where the piece was to be installed and sketched a rough view of a seaside landscape which contained one or two ideas from each of the kids. When our next session took place the following day, the kids were a bit argumentative UNTIL they saw the sketch and their ideas represented in it....and then there was no stopping them! I introduced the concept of a vocabulary list as I defined terms of mosaic and art and working with clay....groan....until the kids recognized that they knew words that some adults didn't know and could use them appropriately.....the vocabulary list SOARED in popularity and was added to regularly. It became such a source of power that I had to limit the kids' access to "suggestions" rather than writing on the list. When a child missed a day, they checked the list to be sure to "get" what the other avid learners had already "gotten"! We created ceramic pieces to match up to the rough sketch. When a student didn't have fine motor skills or the patience to work to a recognizable standard, they became our "texture expert" or "specialist in ___" Everyone found something that could contribute to the project (with a little support!) When the first pieces came out of the kiln, beautiful and exciting, one of the best pieces slipped on the kiln shelf and broke, right in front of the kids. The boy who had made it spoke animatedly into the tense pause in the room, "That's mosaic!" They GOT it and ran with the concept. A student demonstrated her work to an adult showing how the piece she carefully made could be cut up and used to an entirely different purpose, perhaps even more beautiful that the original intent.