Children

There are couple of work days which I tend to reminisce with warmth, they were days that once again taught me a lot of useful new skills. Couple of those days were days when I got to be a workshop assistant.

I met a man who was somewhere between twentyish or thirtyish years old, very nice ginger fellow whose eyes were like blue glass. Just for the record: I have a bad habit of not looking people in the eyes when I speak to them, but this time I really tried and that’s the reason why I still remember his peculiar eyes. Also of course because they were indeed, so peculiar.

But enough about the eyes. He had come to CCA to keep an art workshop for elementary school students, him being an artist as well. The workshop was about Bea McMahon exhibition which involved themes about nature and especially wolves. After my boss had made a speech about the exhibition he introduced me and the workshops leader to children and teachers, so we could get started.

Bea McMahons works

The instructions: (which usually changed a bit with different groups and days) went something like this: You’re going to think of a word that describes your feelings towards the exhibition, nature, forest something like that. And then you’re going to write it down with bubble letters and draw something in to small paper that goes along with the word. Like if you write down “Wolf” you can draw for example a pair of sharp wolf teeth. Then when you have the word and the picture they’re going to be attached by making a slice in the paper which has your word in it so the small picture can pop out of the bigger picture, just like in McMahon's works. Also there was some fake fur and feathers which could also be attached to the work. 

Making a slice to the paper and trying to get all the little parts and fur to stick in the paper was “adults job” so I got to help around whit that. Also I got to talk with the kids, offer coffee or tea to teachers and naturally clean and tidy up (there was fake fur and colored pencils everywhere.) I was really surprised how well all the children behaved. Sometimes they were super excited to hear that I'm from Finland and wanted to hear some Finnish words. I had lot of fun talking to kids although sometimes I wasn't sure what they were saying. Little kids with Irish accent can be a bit confusing.
It was also nice getting to know the man who lead the workshop. He was really nice and we talk little about art, children, teaching and such. On the first workshop day we had two groups, one around ten-eleven o'clock and other around one o'clock. So I got to eat lunch and tidy up before the next group. Working with kids really gave me bit of confident and it really makes things easier when you're working in a nice environment with nice people. Children really are draining bunch, I was always a bit exhausted after every workshop.

From CCA's Facebook