Art workshops are not just fun informal sessions on learning a craft but it is also one of the great opportunities to impart important lessons on culture. I always advocate the importance of understanding cultural traditions and the many layers that people and communities add to these traditions like fiestas (feast of saints) which may be mistaken as some as fanatical and idolatrous but, for those who observe it, a fiesta is some form of communal celebration and thanksgiving.
The terminologies used for anything local as 'inferior' like the local ice cream as 'dirty ice cream' perpetuates this mistaken belief. In a workshop with kids this week I again introduced the yummy sorbetes, the locally made ice cream that uses fruits in season and coconut milk and peddled in a colorful cart is now almost a thing of the past. The ice cream cart vendors I see are big commercial players now plying the streets with built-in commercial jingle on a loop:
Kids can recreate their own version of that local colorful sorbetes cart using the basic geometric guide: make a circle for a wheel, draw rectangle behind it, draw wooden legs and handle, and from there they can now design their very own ice cream on wheels!
Chiara, age 5
Caryn, age 7
And from the CreativeKids studio in Alabang:
. . . my student Sophie, age 6, going through the process with such powerful lines and colors!
Lesson: The local ice cream is not dirty. It is clean and affordable and possibly made by the vendor himself we affectionately call Manong who will not hesitate to share with you how he made that yummy delight only if you'd care to listen . . .
October is Museums and Galleries month. GO and take the time to visit one!
