Author: Kitty Dorje

The classroom felt more like home when I entered as I had kept a regular routine up for a 9 week span. I had started a children’s art class as that is who I got to meet in the community  of Ottery. It was exam preparation time for the next boot load of matrics,  bless them and I hope they get in. My focus was on not those institutionalised learners hoping to get out of there neighbourhoods and instantly become president of the United States instead my out comes were the more practical more realistic goals that a group of learner could get socially together. Matric does not mean a social group that can work together to earn money. Teamwork is better than test scores as people hold together through good and bad times.

Something needs to be worth money so the community recognises that and pays the teacher back. That did not happen this summer as the project was self funded.  As an artist I did get a 5 member class together but keeping them calm that takes a gym class of effort. Once the paints have been tested you need to move them on to something else so that are fresh and happy and well mannered with each other. It is so difficult to place a economic value on social relations but they are always what gets you through in hard time as the people that stand by you don’t get paid to have the same beliefs. They make so much difference they make you feel at home.

Another lovely day with my art class. A lot has happened to create structure with me and the people living in the area. I have met a few different characters but things get out of hand when there are two many people in the class, as people just get raucous and don’t sit quietly and do a mandala like art class trains them up to. They can also talk to each other in a friendly manner in the class room similar to a library except you use colour pencils and pens to think things out with other people.

A systematic mind uses colours to link dots and work out different patterns or piece of information. The systematic colour coded thinking can be used to help in putting different patterns in a composition visually or different pieces of information in a written document sequentially, as you have all the information up front and then you lay it out shuffle it around.

The Art class stations for locals were used well as they had a well prepared class. I had brought pencils and paper as I am a trained high school art teacher and know the social benefits that working creatively with other people in spaces can have. You can focus with people and drawing as you are doing your work. This may seem anti social but if it is a specified art class it is a relaxing way to spend 2 hours. Remember you should relax as you do your work then you allow new ideas to come.

The 24 November 7th session at Room 4 of Ottery Community centre. There was a peacefulness as I waited for the class from 12 in the afternoon holding the classroom so that it would be prepared and calm when the class arrived at 14h30 for a class until 16h00. The art felt hard, hot and dry in a minimal empty classroom a it had taken me 7 weeks just to get 5 students to come in on time. I was staying calm for 2 hours before so that I could chat to the community centre staff and prepare them to bring in the 5 learners that I had prepared a T-shirt design kit for so there would be outcomes.  A learner kept popping in the door asking if the class was starting.  I was stern and sent her down saying she should wait to start with everyone else at 14h30. She went down and she found five friends. They came back in with Heinrich the Community facilitator just before 14h30. How cute and organised!  I got all excited about my Paper Dolls and presented them to four girls and one boy Tye. They loved how organised the clothes were and didn’t mind I had made them myself.

Each learner received an A4 at the start of the class to make a T-shirt design. It was not a big jump as we had been talking fashion for 7 weeks now. Things were beginning to make sense I had made a waist and trousers to demo fashion. Drawings in the room with me was an achievement as they did not get over excited and throw pencils around! They felt at home enough to look a bit silly, too fail!

They started showing things around when I like one design more, choose it. They felt rejected like their designs were not good enough. I was strong and kept to my choice as they were competing with a very good placement the competition was healthy the final shirt design.  There was nearly mutants but I  begged the biggest and dullest girl in pink as she kept them together by not always wanting to be the best. I said if you like her design the other girls will like it to and then you can get your design up next week . Liking her design doesn’t make you bad as she thinks she better.  Politically she could hold the group together doing that liking the design of the designer which was a very strong move as then the group had a good design on the shirt. That was better out come than no design  on the shirt .

This weeks preparation was making a paper doll with a collection of clothes. Using pen and paper I got a few ideas before jumping into shopping.  I felt at home with casual and wholesome clothes on the sporty side.

On Thursday 17 November Heinrich and Ozario met me a bit before the class to discuss how to get the learners into the classroom. Just so we could get info on them. Tag them to make sure they were safe. The plan I suggested was for them to send five kids up to art class. I sat in the classroom till 15h00 and no kids so I went down. They were all in a row so I did not push to take some up as it was hard to separate just five. They all went into the hall to be physical instead. Next week I will be more assertive in negotiating my 5 kids up the stairs to get an art class together.

The learners are still young and varied that come to the sessions, no real regulars yet! Next week I will take names to pin the regulars down.  Ice breakers help to keep them in the room and not shy away. Taking names puts them off as I don’t have the parents in the room to hold them to account. I don’t really get the names down yet. Watching the demo on cutting out was  too long for some of them as they walked away but their group focus is getting better as they get to know each other.

I cut out a waistcoat with lining in the class so they could see and ask questions. I am working towards a fashion out come. Getting the kids to wear something hand made. A creative alternative to mass produced fashion they know how. Making a T shirts can be a bonding experience as you are conscious of what you choose to wear as it is part of your outlook.

The conversation with my work is separate from the fragmented dialogues of talking and doing with learners. That is why I like to have a garment as a practical outcome. I can own it at the end of each session, finish it by the next week. I like to do homework as then I come to a conclusion before moving on to the next week. I am fastidious at keeping to the time schedule for the class.  That means a clean  start and finish time, which allows for sharing practically and socially in that time. What people choose to do in that time is what they get out.

Socially people come in while I am working and I like them for that. People who I know and I can work with. Getting the right group of people for art takes time, they filter in during sessions as they like what the see and what I do. At the moment it is children as the mothers use their energy to be creative at home ! Preparing a class takes meditation during the week making clothes and thinking up activities, ice breakers. I do come in with more emphasis on technical know how as I am not playing with children during the week. I have no children. This is a clean workshop space that moms don’t always have time for.

One learner responded well to a set of fashion models I had pegged up in a frame last session. I think her name was Kelsey.  I continues this week to  hang up actors and fashion models on a grid line I have constructed in the room. Two lines at 90 degrees to each other forming a cross in the centre of the room, as there is hang space to put models put at various location in the room outside of the frame.

27 October the classroom has become very demo based as you are never sure which learners are coming in. I have my guitar trick put up fashion dolls that learners can shuffle around and I am making a garment that I can share progress on so they can see how they can make clothes with local supplies in the area.

I brought some yellow canvas to show the kids to unpack how to get this fashion thing up and running. They shuffled around magazine fashion models and then put the canvas around them like it was a toga. That was all they said that is what I had to work with outside of school.

https://youtu.be/MOdKhiLi4rE

Thursday 13 October

 2/ 10 sessions here out in Ottery Community centre if you remember the out come is a fashion garments for a Christmas market and I am keeping a keen eye on the fashion tips of the learner coming in. The glove the hat and then the sporty tracksuit.