For a brief period of time, I lived with my sister and at that time, my 6 year old niece. I had my office/art studio in the basement, and I would love it when she would join me after she came home from school. I had an extra table for her, to color and draw while I was working.
I remember her coming home one day after school, quite visibly upset that she had “gotten in trouble at school” for coloring outside of the lines. When will teachers learn there are no lines? Has that old fashioned thinking not died yet?
It is time that we realize that self-expression and creative expression has no rules. It is time that schools and educational systems no longer allow coloring books in class. It is time that teachers stop printing off in mass, coloring sheets with pre-fab, pre-drawn things on it for the children to color. It is time that children express their individuality in school, through art with no rules.
“How are we to have creative business owners, and creative thinkers, when at the age of 6, we must stay within the confines of the lines of a coloring book? Please, try a blank sketch book.” - brenda johima -
At that time, my “day job” was as a Counsellor/Therapist, for an in-hospital drug and alcohol treatment program for Addictions.
After work that day, and during our time in my art studio together, I told my niece that “the next time the teacher says that to her”, tell her “there are no mistakes in art.”
Little did I think and know, that a few days later, my courageous and brave, and brilliantly creative young 6 year old neice then DID, in fact, go and tell that teacher, “My Auntie Brenda says There Are No Mistakes In Art.” Good For You! I thought. And, “Oh No” I thought, as of course, she once again, faced the repercussions at school, of being squashed once again, by that teacher, this time not for coloring outside the lines, but for speaking her truth about art.
My motto still is:
There are no mistakes in art, and there are no lines within which we must remain, there is no box, within which we must live. – brenda johima –
Color Outside The Lines, because There Are No Lines.
