Sara’s mother was taking my class and asked me if she could bring her daughter to class so she wouldn’t have to be alone. Sara had had encephalitis at birth and carried the scars physically and developmentally. I suggested that perhaps she would be interested in trying mandalas and her mother said, “Sara doesn’t do art.” Apparently she had had a negative art experience and had never wanted to try again.
Sara came to class and sat on the sidelines reading a book, but she quickly became fascinated with my husband’s experiments. He was dropping bright paint onto one half of a sheet of paper and then folding it. When opened up the painting looked like Rohr shock images. He asked Sara if she wanted to try it and with some coaxing she did. She literally squealed with delight on her first try and she was hooked. She asked if she could enroll in the class and insisted on paying with her own savings. She was having so much fun, and with my husband’s guidance, created many wonderful paintings.
Her new-found ability to play and paint brought her such delight and all the class got caught up in it. Each time she did a painting she would go around the room and show everyone. “Look what I did!” she would say. She was 26 and had a very active inner child who came out to play in class. This inspired everyone’s inner child to come out and play also. She was so very caring and would visit with each person before class asking them how they were. At the end of class she was so pleased to learn she could make art and have fun doing it. But maybe even more valuable, was the gift she was to our class!