Patti Fox

Creating a comfortable and safe environment to build trust with the refugees, understanding their background and taking that into consideration, The Olympic Village requests a day in their park.

Del Mar Artist Patti Fox and her team of local educators, “The Olympic Village“, in cooperation with the IRC in San Diego, led a program teaching an art and nature based workshop to the high school refugees they met previously at the beach in Del Mar. This time the village went to their local park, Colina del Sol on Tuesday, August 3 to continue the theme of building trust with these students. This program consisted of several lessons developed by the artist and her village members. Experienced lifeguard and yoga practitioner Sebastian Slovin started the day with a guided relaxation practice, something most people don’t make the time for in their daily lives. Artist and sculptor, Josh Lary led a nature focus time and the two educators connected the group with their local environment. Finally, Patti Fox and Artist Thomas Bosworth led the students in color pastel and painting practice, teaching color theory, mark making and painting techniques encouraging nature inspired self portraits and water driven imagery.

The village encouraged the students to find their voices in form, shape, color, line and value. They focused on learning how to relax in healthy ways and connecting to the environment, using this connection to emotionally connect with the art pieces they created. Fox reminded the teens that kindness and respect for one another and the village was the order of the day. Wide smiles and paint covered hands were aplenty during the event and the students produced beautiful, process based work to share with their families and friends.

The day was best remembered by two e-mails I received said Fox. The newest village educator Josh Lary that night. “Spending time with the refugees on Tuesday, August 3rd was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in a long time. Sebastian’s Yoga and breathing exercises were a great way to begin the event. It gave everyone a time to center themselves before beginning their creative journey with Patti, Tom, and myself. At first some of the refugees seemed a little timid about expressing themselves on paper, but once they began flicking paint and using their hands to create colorful abstract representations of themselves they couldn’t stop. They wanted to learn new techniques, information about contemporary artists, and ways to use various materials that were provided. It was simply amazing to see how appreciative and thankful these kids were to be involved in the Olympic Village. They could see we really cared about them, their story, and their future. After the exercises were over we said our goodbyes with high-fives and hugs. This was my first experience interacting with the refugees and it definitely won’t be my last,” said Lary.

After two twelve hour days as an ocean lifeguard in Del Mar, Sebastian Slovin wrote, “I didn’t really know what to expect at this event. I was a bit skeptical about any language barrier there may be with the students but was confident that our team would be able to get through to them in other ways. A large part of what I do is encourage people to slow down and quiet down enough to notice how beautiful it is just to be. We then stay with that awareness for a time and bring it into the creative process. When working with teenagers there is always a lot of energy and sometimes it can be difficult to be still. When we began it took a few minutes for everyone to settle in, and soon we were all there together in the park, totally present, enjoying each others company and the beauty around us. I asked them to just try and be aware of their surroundings, just to notice the beauty. It was really fun for me when many of the students pointed out details of the clouds or the trees that they said they hadn’t noticed before, like the thunder heads building in the east or the tiny beads of sap dripping from a tree branch. Later when the students began the art process it was so wonderful to see each of them open up and express themselves with enthusiasm. It was an amazing day.”

We will be exploring grant writing with the International Rescue Committee so we can create a workshop based program to continue their education and explore ways that they can use the skills they build with us to work towards the dreams they have for their future. For further information please go to The Olympic Village.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 at 8:43 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.