When my students make presentations about their artwork, I love the natural wisdom which emerges. I hope you find their collages as inspiring as I do!
This is my collage. We can see we have two mouse in here. On the right, we have one, oh, just so terrible. He just in the cleft and he (is) afraid the other animal will eat it. On the left, this animal can enjoy the sunshine and can in the farmland eat the rice. It’s so freedom. Oh, it’s relaxed, fantastic.
The meaning is like us. Why? Because we can in here have many rich people or people who come from the worker family. But we are the same. We are all human. So if you want to get success, you have to change. Maybe in this time, you are very relaxed or maybe in this time you are very afraid, but never mind because you can change. You can do it yourself and change your surroundings. You can get what you want. . . . . If you want to change, you have to work hard.
First, why I choose cat? Because the cat look like cute and look like a little lazy. Traditionally people say “The cat have nine lives.” Why cat have nine lives? Because cat is very very vigilant and focused for everything. Even though they look lazy and they don’t care about anything, cat is very focused for everything. If a mouse passes his eyes, he can be very focused to get it, to take the mouse, and eat it.
Traditional Chinese master say, “You’re safe in the danger, but you die in the good life.” What’s the meaning? Does anyone read the Bible? Have the story about a Jewish king named David. When he (was) younger, that last Jewish king want to kill him. Then he run away and don’t do any mistakes for God because he’s very focused on the dangerous life. But after this time passed and David become the king,, he have a mistake because his life is so good.
For everything you need a focus. Does anybody play League of Warriors? Do you know, for this game you need a lot of focus so you can win. So everything in life you need to play like this game. Everyone need a focus. Don’t relax for everything. You understand?
My collage is about the art. And this art is by Frida Kahlo. She was born in Mexico, and she was important painter in Mexico and other countries. She was a sick woman all her life because she suffered life-long health problems because of a traffic accident when she was a teenager. She stayed in the bed all the time. She had a problem with her spinal column.
You can see the picture. She is Frida Kahlo. She had one eyebrow. In the middle, you can see arms and legs. The means the inspiration of this woman was influenced by her illness.
She did different self-portraits because she paint about her problems. She paint about her physical problem, emotional problems, and personal problems. And she has problems with her spinal column and her sexuality.
In this corner, you can see the man flying with an umbrella. He has wings, like Frida who said, “Because I have wings, I can fly.” What is the meaning? It’s impossible to fly, but you can fly with your imagination. You can fly with your dreams.
I choose this collage because I like her story. Frida Kahlo is my superhero. She is immortal.
Today I want to talk about Chinese history. Chinese history have about 5,000 or more years. You can see the three pictures. When you first see the three pictures, you think the three things have long history. In China, there are many museums, and there are many Chinese things in museums all over the world, for example, in the Royal Ontario Museum.
On the top left, is a bell. You can put it for ding, ding, ding. It’s a musical bell. On the right, this a jar to put some food in it. On the bottom, this is a picture of some jade.
At the top of my collage are two pictures, a tornado and a ship in a calm sea that is about to go over a waterfall. These two pictures tell us that in our lives we have some troubles. Some trouble will come to our lives, but don’t give up.
The bottom half of the collage has two pictures. This one is a picture of a drop of water. This one has a path and boat. You can feel very relaxed when you see these pictures. You can see that this is very calm. So every time you have troubles in your life, calm down is the first step, and you will solve it. You may have many, many bad days, but it’s not a bad life. You will believe that solve your troubles is a good choice. Give up is a bad choice. So believe in yourself and believe in ourselves!
My collage is about my future. At the top of the collage, there is a wooden bridge. All you you can see is that it is a long way. The weather is hazy. To the right of the bridge, there are many colourful clouds. In the lower right corner, you can see a house with five children and two old people inside.
The collage means a lot to me because it’s like my life. Maybe in my future I will be like that, from the hazy weather to a colourful world. I came alone here four months ago, but maybe in my future I will have many granddaughters and grandsons. They can begin to call me Grandma. So the future will be better.
Finally, here is the text from Jerry’s presentation. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of his collage because he made it a few days after the other students).
There are only three pictures in this collage. Here is one cat. What is he doing? He’s a sleeping cat, and he is dreaming. The question is, what he dreaming about? Many people will think he’s dreaming of gold. It’s so exciting. But if you want to understand the truth, he isn’t dreaming of gold. He’s dreaming of freedom. Animals and humans dream of freedom. Gold is cheaper than freedom. Freedom is what all humans and animals want.