Art
Children's Resources
Teaching The Mystery Of God To Children
A Book Of Clues
For our next clue let us consider art. Looking at beauty lifts our spirits and turns our thoughts to God. One author said, "Beauty teases open the heart." We hunger for visions of divine experience. Sight makes the greatest impression. When we behold something it becomes real. Just as too quick an interpretation of a Bible story cuts off questioning, too quick an explanation of art has the same effect. This may be an act of irreverence. In the presence of the sacred, sometimes the best response is an awesome silence. We stand in reverence before a painting, a flower, a rainbow, or a spectacular sunset and we experience something of the Invisible God.
A Christian educator whom I admire very much, now retired, told me this story: In her very first job she came upon some women cleaning out Sunday school rooms -- tossing away papers and half-made crafts and old pictures. One picture captured her attention -- a very familiar picture at that time she said. It was the picture of a young girl dressed in 1920s clothes sitting outdoors looking up at a small bird in a tree nearby. For some reason she picked this picture out of the trash can and kept it. In years of moving to other churches she always kept that picture. Now, living in a retirement home that picture still accompanies her. Once she was told it was now an antique and a dealer offered to buy it, but she says she wouldn't sell it for any amount of money. That picture speaks to her. She looked at me thoughtfully and said, "I really can't tell you why."
God comes to us in so many non-verbal forms. Art is often an avenue.
But tastes in art are individual and this is important to remember as we teach. Too often we have been too literal in our Sunday school art. In art expressions, as well as other teaching methods in the church, we often take the path of least resistance, the familiar road. Images of Christ, for example, that we loved as a child may be a stumbling block to today's children. "God is like this" we may say, halting their exploration into the realm of the holy. The stereotyped repetition of traditional art may not enter the heart of a new generation and comic book art in recent curriculum trivializes the story. It seems reasonable to start afresh and make active research from an old art.
For example, consider finger painting.
"It is a remarkable paradox that the most ancient of art forms is relatively new and unexplored in the western world." So says the artist Mary Ann Brandt. Her painting glows with radiant color, sometimes reminding you of the energy present in a Van Gogh painting ... sometimes presenting recognizable objects that subtly emerge as faces and figures and visions. Other times the canvases seem to burst forth with a kaleidoscope of color. Imagine my surprise when I met this artist and discovered her media. She transports us into the numinous with fingerpaints.
But this is a kindergarten media you argue. Not so. Mary Ann Brandt explains how she began expressing herself in this media when attending a group that was exploring their dreams. Some in the group began to want a tactical expression and began to experiment with fingerpaints. After a few moments she was hooked. Her rules: choose colors that appeal to you at the moment. As your fingers move across the paper, the picture begins to take on a life of its own. Do not have a completed picture in your mind. Let the colors and your fingers lead you. "Sometimes I am surprised at what I have produced," she says.
As we seek to teach children about the unknowable nature of God, finger painting works as an appropriate media.
Begin your first class experiment in finger painting with a single color -- black or blue -- and let the children discover what strokes their fingers will create in the monochrome. The experience will gradually introduce its own sense of wonder.
Later give your class a Bible verse to illustrate. For example:
The heavens declare the glory of God.
-- Psalm 19:1
For with you is the fountain of life. In your light we see light.
-- Psalm 39:9
Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world -- from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
-- Psalm 90:2
God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.
-- Psalm 46:1
I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from?
-- Psalm 121:1
Instruct your students to ponder these words. "Think about colors that express your thoughts. Relax and let your fingers move."
Mary Ann Brandt concluded: "Finger painting is more than kid stuff. You may discover something wonderful in the medium and in yourself as well."
Mary Ann Brandt's pictures can be viewed on the web site: www.fingerpaint.com with links to supplies needed.
Colors
The invisible God sometimes comes to us through colors. Sometimes in meditation waves of color wash over us. To prepare for this experience choose a color -- such as blue. Catch the pure blue of a summer sky. Compare it with the blue of the sea, lake, pool. Look at the myriads of blue flowers from soft blue of bluebells to the deeper tones of delphiniums. Shut your eyes, remember and envision these tones of blue. Rest in these colors and enjoy the feelings that arise.
A surprising number of people see colors when they pray. Putting words and imploring aside they allow God to enter their prayers through colors. A feeling of deep peace arises as God comes to us through blues, indigoes, and violet tones.
A splash of red as you meditate is an energizing experience -- a challenging experience of God -- a feeling of passion and fire. Sometimes it evokes a feeling of sheer terror.
Sometimes we experience deep black. Just wait and breathe slowly. After a time, splotches of color will appear.
A yellow or golden light as we pray lifts the spirit. Again go to nature and its many shades of yellow: shiny buttercups, delicate primrose, deep mustard color of yarrow, or rays of the sun. Pale yellow tending to white is a clean and calming experience of God.
As we let our minds and thoughts dissolve into these shapes and colors there is no need for words. We concentrate on the colors and shapes which sometimes move like a kaleidoscope before our shut eyes. We absorb the feelings of these colors. Then, without words, we enter into a dialogue with mystery.
A beautiful stained-glass window captures these same meditation colors. Consider hanging a piece of stained-glass in your Sunday school window to catch the light -- enticing the colors into your room.
Rainbows can dance in your Sunday school room by hanging multifaceted crystals in windows where they will catch the sunshine.
What joy there is in blowing bubbles. These lovely circles of transparency brilliantly reflect color and open our eyes to mystery.
Giving children the opportunity to create helps them learn something of the great creator God who said, "It is very good!" Mystery is at the heart of creativity.
The urge to create is a primal urge. Continue to consider new and different art media for your class to experience -- making beautiful things to look at. The art of making paper flowers is popular in many cultures. Or consider creating sculpture from litter. Both of these methods cause us to look at creation with different eyes. More than objects used it's the interplay of children with these objects. The mind at play with materials it loves. The late Mr. Rogers of television fame tells the story of a sculptor who visited a neighborhood nursery school. The teachers, amazed at his ability to enthrall these active four-year-olds asked for his secret. He didn't overtly teach, Mr. Rogers answered, "He just loved the clay in the presence of the children. They saw and responded."
All the art forms -- stained-glass windows, candles, silk flags, paints, crayons, pastels make it possible for us to create and it is uncanny the simple joy of living that comes from art creations.
Invite the children to share their creations and add their positive responses to other children's art. In Indian art it is not only the artist who gives form and content to a culture but also the sagridaya (the person of one heart) who knows how to share, to appreciate, and also to gently criticize because of an inner vision. Can your children become sagridayas for others in the class?
A Time To Reflect
Ponder art in your life and teaching.
1.
Recall your first art experience. What did you create? Recall a time when you were amazed at what you could create.
2.
Were you encouraged in art expressions as a child? Remember examples pro or con.
3.
If you could create something beautiful in the world what would it be?
4.
Consider the images you see on television and in the news. Then read Philippians 4:8. With what sort of images are you filling your mind?
5.
As a teacher, look carefully at the images your class creates. In my fourth-grade Sunday school class boys often include guns and violence in the pictures they draw. How would you respond to this?
6.
What is your favorite color? Do you know why you favor it? What associations do you have with this color? Can you recall a time when you were deeply affected by a color?
A Christian educator whom I admire very much, now retired, told me this story: In her very first job she came upon some women cleaning out Sunday school rooms -- tossing away papers and half-made crafts and old pictures. One picture captured her attention -- a very familiar picture at that time she said. It was the picture of a young girl dressed in 1920s clothes sitting outdoors looking up at a small bird in a tree nearby. For some reason she picked this picture out of the trash can and kept it. In years of moving to other churches she always kept that picture. Now, living in a retirement home that picture still accompanies her. Once she was told it was now an antique and a dealer offered to buy it, but she says she wouldn't sell it for any amount of money. That picture speaks to her. She looked at me thoughtfully and said, "I really can't tell you why."
God comes to us in so many non-verbal forms. Art is often an avenue.
But tastes in art are individual and this is important to remember as we teach. Too often we have been too literal in our Sunday school art. In art expressions, as well as other teaching methods in the church, we often take the path of least resistance, the familiar road. Images of Christ, for example, that we loved as a child may be a stumbling block to today's children. "God is like this" we may say, halting their exploration into the realm of the holy. The stereotyped repetition of traditional art may not enter the heart of a new generation and comic book art in recent curriculum trivializes the story. It seems reasonable to start afresh and make active research from an old art.
For example, consider finger painting.
"It is a remarkable paradox that the most ancient of art forms is relatively new and unexplored in the western world." So says the artist Mary Ann Brandt. Her painting glows with radiant color, sometimes reminding you of the energy present in a Van Gogh painting ... sometimes presenting recognizable objects that subtly emerge as faces and figures and visions. Other times the canvases seem to burst forth with a kaleidoscope of color. Imagine my surprise when I met this artist and discovered her media. She transports us into the numinous with fingerpaints.
But this is a kindergarten media you argue. Not so. Mary Ann Brandt explains how she began expressing herself in this media when attending a group that was exploring their dreams. Some in the group began to want a tactical expression and began to experiment with fingerpaints. After a few moments she was hooked. Her rules: choose colors that appeal to you at the moment. As your fingers move across the paper, the picture begins to take on a life of its own. Do not have a completed picture in your mind. Let the colors and your fingers lead you. "Sometimes I am surprised at what I have produced," she says.
As we seek to teach children about the unknowable nature of God, finger painting works as an appropriate media.
Begin your first class experiment in finger painting with a single color -- black or blue -- and let the children discover what strokes their fingers will create in the monochrome. The experience will gradually introduce its own sense of wonder.
Later give your class a Bible verse to illustrate. For example:
The heavens declare the glory of God.
-- Psalm 19:1
For with you is the fountain of life. In your light we see light.
-- Psalm 39:9
Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world -- from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
-- Psalm 90:2
God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.
-- Psalm 46:1
I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from?
-- Psalm 121:1
Instruct your students to ponder these words. "Think about colors that express your thoughts. Relax and let your fingers move."
Mary Ann Brandt concluded: "Finger painting is more than kid stuff. You may discover something wonderful in the medium and in yourself as well."
Mary Ann Brandt's pictures can be viewed on the web site: www.fingerpaint.com with links to supplies needed.
Colors
The invisible God sometimes comes to us through colors. Sometimes in meditation waves of color wash over us. To prepare for this experience choose a color -- such as blue. Catch the pure blue of a summer sky. Compare it with the blue of the sea, lake, pool. Look at the myriads of blue flowers from soft blue of bluebells to the deeper tones of delphiniums. Shut your eyes, remember and envision these tones of blue. Rest in these colors and enjoy the feelings that arise.
A surprising number of people see colors when they pray. Putting words and imploring aside they allow God to enter their prayers through colors. A feeling of deep peace arises as God comes to us through blues, indigoes, and violet tones.
A splash of red as you meditate is an energizing experience -- a challenging experience of God -- a feeling of passion and fire. Sometimes it evokes a feeling of sheer terror.
Sometimes we experience deep black. Just wait and breathe slowly. After a time, splotches of color will appear.
A yellow or golden light as we pray lifts the spirit. Again go to nature and its many shades of yellow: shiny buttercups, delicate primrose, deep mustard color of yarrow, or rays of the sun. Pale yellow tending to white is a clean and calming experience of God.
As we let our minds and thoughts dissolve into these shapes and colors there is no need for words. We concentrate on the colors and shapes which sometimes move like a kaleidoscope before our shut eyes. We absorb the feelings of these colors. Then, without words, we enter into a dialogue with mystery.
A beautiful stained-glass window captures these same meditation colors. Consider hanging a piece of stained-glass in your Sunday school window to catch the light -- enticing the colors into your room.
Rainbows can dance in your Sunday school room by hanging multifaceted crystals in windows where they will catch the sunshine.
What joy there is in blowing bubbles. These lovely circles of transparency brilliantly reflect color and open our eyes to mystery.
Giving children the opportunity to create helps them learn something of the great creator God who said, "It is very good!" Mystery is at the heart of creativity.
The urge to create is a primal urge. Continue to consider new and different art media for your class to experience -- making beautiful things to look at. The art of making paper flowers is popular in many cultures. Or consider creating sculpture from litter. Both of these methods cause us to look at creation with different eyes. More than objects used it's the interplay of children with these objects. The mind at play with materials it loves. The late Mr. Rogers of television fame tells the story of a sculptor who visited a neighborhood nursery school. The teachers, amazed at his ability to enthrall these active four-year-olds asked for his secret. He didn't overtly teach, Mr. Rogers answered, "He just loved the clay in the presence of the children. They saw and responded."
All the art forms -- stained-glass windows, candles, silk flags, paints, crayons, pastels make it possible for us to create and it is uncanny the simple joy of living that comes from art creations.
Invite the children to share their creations and add their positive responses to other children's art. In Indian art it is not only the artist who gives form and content to a culture but also the sagridaya (the person of one heart) who knows how to share, to appreciate, and also to gently criticize because of an inner vision. Can your children become sagridayas for others in the class?
A Time To Reflect
Ponder art in your life and teaching.
1.
Recall your first art experience. What did you create? Recall a time when you were amazed at what you could create.
2.
Were you encouraged in art expressions as a child? Remember examples pro or con.
3.
If you could create something beautiful in the world what would it be?
4.
Consider the images you see on television and in the news. Then read Philippians 4:8. With what sort of images are you filling your mind?
5.
As a teacher, look carefully at the images your class creates. In my fourth-grade Sunday school class boys often include guns and violence in the pictures they draw. How would you respond to this?
6.
What is your favorite color? Do you know why you favor it? What associations do you have with this color? Can you recall a time when you were deeply affected by a color?
