A Painter's Musings on the Visual World

For the first time in many years I am writing curriculum. A few other artists and I are embarking on a pilot program to bring art to an elementary population in a small town that does not have any art in school. When I taught public school art 20 years ago, I was constantly justifying my existence. There’s a lot of verifiable data to support why art is good for outcomes in math and science. In public school you generally have to prove that what you are doing will have an impact on standardized tests but even with that data, art programs hang on by a thread.   The real reason we are doing this is because our communities matter and we are part of them. Maybe one of these kids needs something more than the standard academic route to some form of success. 

Jane Chapin   “ Pecos Monastery” for Operation Fundstorm

Like everyone else this week I was looking for answers to understand how a young man could carry out an evil act of violence.  I did not find any answers even though social media and the news had tons of blame and “expert” solutions. Our school project was already in the works when the bad news happened and perhaps it is just my search for answers that made me connect them and hope that the answer is somewhere in communities. Volunteering is not necessarily pure altruism – we generally do things because we get something out of it. The payoff is that connecting with our communities also lifts ourselves.

A few days ago, I heard about an artist who built three seesaws on the US – Mexican border.  They were constructed through the slat wall so children on either side could see each other.  Regardless of your thoughts on the border crisis, you have to salute this project as an innovative idea. Someone took a divisive situation and brought light to it just for a moment. 

It will not change the world or solve the border problems. It was not a political statement even though some rushed to make it so. I’m sure the kids didn’t see it that way. It didn’t argue whether the kids should or should not be there on either side of the border – it just acknowledged that they are. It was an artist doing what artists do – thinking creatively. The artists showed up not knowing if they would even be allowed by authorities on either side to construct the seesaws and were pleasantly surprised. It only lasted a day, so some might think it did not matter. But it’s a funny thing about small gestures – they really do matter. And the seesaw is a perfect symbol – two sides connected with each one responsible for lifting the other up.

Jane Chapin “Portrait of Mechi”

It is not surprising that I heard about this story in church followed by the question “Where do you build your seesaw?” The question is intended to ask us where each of us spends our energy on something positive. For those of us lucky enough to be artists, it is an easy question. We are in the beauty business – finding it, recording it in some way and setting it loose in the world. Doing it is generally a happy experience. When our work finds an audience it also lifts someone else who then compensates us and enables us to continue. We just made the world a brighter place. Seesaw mission accomplished.

Jane Chapin “No Greater Love” True Grit Gallery Fundraiser

There are several portrait artists that donate their skills to memorializing fallen military for Gold Star Families. Fallen Heroes Project and American Fallen Soldiers are only two among many artist projects that take up this cause for military and first responders. There is sometimes a long wait for that portrait to arrive but when it does, it is cherished by those families – it is an immortalized symbol that their child or spouse or parent is not forgotten. The military and the art community, two very different worlds, are connected. Another seesaw built. 

Last year in the wake of a devastating hurricane on the gulf coast of Florida, artist Larry Moore had an idea. In a matter of a few days he had marshalled other artists to contribute paintings and logistical support to an online auction.  They raised $117,000, bridging the gap for immediate aid while the community waited for disaster money to start coming in. 

Beth Marchant  Operation Fundstorm Donated Painting

Every year Kevin MacPherson goes to Guatemala with a group of artists to work with Xela Aid and children in a remote village. There are countless examples of gestures large and small that connect us to communities. I have seen artists that have just given their work away – to a cause or even sometimes just to a child who was fascinated by watching them. I have seen painters hand an 8-year-old a $30 brush and let them paint on their canvas. 

Mostafa Keyhani    Lovis Foundation Donated Painting

They do it to get someone on the other end of that see saw – someone who really needs to be lifted just for a moment. Then hopefully that person gets a turn at doing the lifting and making another connection.  That’s the way community works.

So where do you build your see saw?