((((Now I have no idea why I am in the orphanage as an voluntary art teacher in Nepal, while I am going through my friends' lives on Facebook. I have dropped all my things behind in Hong Kong, and I am no more the one I were.))))
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ― Albert Einstein
The meaning of art lessons: how to enjoy your time by learning to be alone, to express yourself and feel confident. Then you give love.
Learning art does not mean that you want to be an "artist", or you can say everyone is/can be an artist. Normally, of 40 people in a class doing art together, only 1 or 2 persons might be artists. I give art lessons not mainly for the artistic development, but to build the path to someone's heart.
The aim of my drawing lessons in the children's home in Nepal is to help the children/teachers to enjoy the time for themselves, to let them concentrate on building the lines and forms from what they had seen outside the window, in front of the table or inside their imagination. They built their time and space for themselves by observation and remembering, rendering them into lines and forms on the paper. This is how a drawing is built. This inner conversation could not have happened without the tranquility of the moment for yourself.
Once we learn to be alone and to be by ourself, we can make our own universe. Then we start to build the connection between our world and others’. We share our creations (your work), we widen our world by making friends, caring and understanding each other, and this is also the way of giving love.
Enjoy drawing, build the path to your heart and you are able to talk with yourself, then you are never alone but you learn how to be alone at the same time. Of course there are many different ways to achieve the same aim, however, I am only good in art and this is the best things I can share with the others.
I am not trying to be a close friend with the children (although we can be good friends if they want), I prefer they spend more time for themselves and their friends. I would rather teach as much as i can. I also try to train some of them to be teachers, so they can give art lesson to others sooner without me.
My time here in the children's home is short. I have ask the organiser to find the children who are interested to join the art class instead of forcing everybody to be my student just because I want to be an volunteer, I do not want the children entertaining me, I want to be a helper, an observer, a friend or a stranger, I have been once in their lives and I will be always there.
I understand more about art by teaching art, by arranging ideas, by phrasing them in simple speech. The reaction of the students show the result of my presentation and I may need to rearrange and rephrase the idea again if it is not clear enough to them. That means I learn from my students, which lowers the boundary between teacher and students. And I feel more confident by presenting the same idea over and over, which given new insight by repetition.
At the end of the 3rd lesson in the day, I am tired. Finally I understand why there are so many songs praising teachers, it is not an easy job. And, "add oil"（頑張って） for me tomorrow and all the coming tomorrows, please.
p.s. Do not tell the children about the above "great" ideas of learning art, they just need to have fun and tranquility by doing it. And please spread the idea of doing art for all the adult and parents, which is far more useful than they think.
