I can recall one of the first craft projects I made completely on my own. My favorite class in elementary school was Art. In that class, I didn’t need to worry about getting things “right” or “wrong”. It was also fine by my teacher when after she gave the class the assignment – that it was then up to each of us as to how to go about getting the end result. Don’t get me wrong – we weren’t a bunch of third graders running amok. She had a purpose to her lack of direction, it allowed each child to develop their own set of “rules” to get the results they desired – and I thank her for it tremendously. It was at that point in my life that I believe my “creative gene” was – well, unleashed. I started small, with my very own paper mache hand puppet. I recall learning how to sew a modified “mitten” which would serve as the body for my character. Since I decided on a clown, I had little to worry about and I would only have to concern myself with painting the face white and add the classic features from there – or so I thought. As a child, I always “over thought” things and would ask the teacher for approval – what I got, was more along the lines of my first taste at artistic freedom to just create. When I asked her should I make red or purple hair, her answer was – yes. Perplexed by the lack of direction, I recall asking about red lips and being told why not yellow lips. OK, now I was really confused because up to this point in my life I had been taught the basics – sky = blue, grass = green …but now I was being given permission encouraged outright to go against the norm – and I loved it!
-M.M.
The Marvelous Michelina 