With new Story Arts Workshop, the Bosque Arts Center continues to raise the bar with its Summer Camp series; Rising Stars Theatre Camp runs throughout July
CLIFTON – Bathed in soft natural light, the pale yellow-walled room is filled with an air of tranquil industriousness, as the girls intently work on their art in notebooks, bees and flowers contrasting the black cover. Thirteen-year-old McKenna and 14-year-old Marilee were working on illustrations to complement a short story they had written. Both happened to choose works in tranquil blue and green from impressionist painters as their inspiration.
The Bosque Arts Center’s Story Arts Workshop instructor Rita Huie feels creative writing is being lost and creating a journal offers an alternative, more diverse approach to creative writing. With her Story Arts Camp she hopes to kindle a different appreciation, and maybe love for writing. and more broadly her true mission is to unlock creative expression in all its forms.
“While journaling is more about feelings, like the old diaries used to be, I like to encourage my writers to create whole short stories without the confines of an English class,” Huie said. “Story Arts is designed for children (also teens, any age) to freely express their thoughts and feelings, as well as tell stories.”
The pressure of grades, tests and having to produce writing at school within a certain time frame sometimes extinguishes the initial joy youth can experience when writing creatively.
During the summer, the BAC rooms are abuzz with the hustle and bustle of summer camps for the youth, from Imagination Factory June 17-20, Sewing Camp June 25-27, Music Camp July 22-25 and Kids Culinary Camp Aug. 5-9. This year, two new art forms were represented in the camps – Story Arts Workshop July 8-10 about creating your own journal and Rising Stars Theatre Camp with play performances July 8-31.
With the three-day camp open to sixth-10th graders, the BAC’s Story Arts Workshop took its four attendees on a trip into journal writing, art and illustration, combining different creative flows. They learned the basics of journaling, produced short stories, a Japanese Haiku and learned different art skills for decorating their journal.
A haiku – an unrhymed poem with a very specific structure of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five – traditionally evokes images of the natural world, and often juxtaposes two images. Simplicity, intensity and directness of expression are key. Usually depicting a tiny moment in time, a haiku’s cadence adds to the elegance and balance to the “where, when and what” portrayed.
“I write, erase, rewrite
Erase again, and then
A poppy blooms.”
This prime example of a Japanese haiku, Katsushika Hokusai’s “A Poppy Blooms” shows how the constant, repetitive writer’s work mimics nature. The process of creation and recreation, until the reward finally shows up in the words as illustrated by the undeniably beautiful poppy. Additionally, in Japanese culture the poppy is symbolic of passion and resilience, and is associated with dreams and the fleeting nature of life.
Inspiration for McKenna’s Wedding Dress haiku was Huie’s painting of a white Christening gown. As well as capturing the promise and hope held by a white wedding dress, her haiku evokes the beauty of the moonlight.
“White, flowing and bright
You see it even at night
A beautiful sight.”
One day, Huie challenged the girls to consider themselves a food writer, describing a food, using different adjectives to capture the texture, the smells, the taste and the feeling the food evoked. A thesaurus was at hand to help them along if they got stuck.
Creative lettering allowed the youth to explore embellishing a simple letter, much like the medieval monks did to enrich the texts they were transcribing. McKenna incorporated all the things she loves in her name’s initial – sewing, her dad’s construction tools, flowers, her favorite chicken.
While McKenna read at an early age, her mother found that her writing lagged a bit behind and hoped both the BAC’s cursive writing class and this Story Arts class would encourage her daughter to write more. McKenna especially enjoyed the extra creative aspect of the classes.
Huie showed how paintings, personal experiences, nature, family and pets all offered ideas to create poems, articles and images.
Opening the students’ artistic side, the decorations included sketches using glitter pens and regular pencils, ribbons, buttons and fabric as desired. When choosing a subject, one of the students analyzed the colors of a painting, its name and what she felt it portrayed before copying it into her journal. It was the colors orange, yellow and red, contrasting the black storm clouds and patches of blue sky that drew her in.
“There is an element of therapy in creative writing and journaling as well,” Huie said.
Studies link writing privately, capturing thoughts and emotions on paper help with mental well-being. Because it is a lot slower than the capacity to think, writing by hand, or drawing, forces oneself to be present in the moment, to stay with the thoughts being written down. Private reflection allows to sort ones thoughts, put events into perspective and regulate emotions.
But that is true for other forms of creative expression like music, theatre arts, dance, sculpting, drawing and painting. Expression of ones thoughts brings new feelings to light, assists in self-discovery, builds confidence and decreases stress.
A former art teacher, Huie herself doesn’t like to confine her creativity to one art form – she paints, has written three books and writes short stories, plays the flute in the McLennan County Community Orchestra with her husband who plays the trombone. Inspiration for the art in the Story Arts Camp journals included photos of Huie’s artwork, and the art books from the BAC library; but it can come from anywhere and anything.
Another student in the class, 14-year-old Marilee has been attending BAC camps since she was seven, attending sewing camp last year. If given the choice, she and McKenna definitely would attend the Story Arts camp again next year.
Thanks to the extraordinary vision and drive of Joan Spieler, for more than 40 years the Bosque Arts Center promotes and highlights all art forms under a single umbrella from visual, musical, performing and culinary arts. And for all ages.
Photos by SIMONE WICHERS-VOSS
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