Our Creat By Michele Laughing-Reeves
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Back in December, we were all looking forward to the coming new year, especially since 2019 did not live up to its expectations, having been riddled with political conflict and the uncertainty that it created. So, when we lit the firecrackers and rang in the year 2020, we hoped for prosperity and a new beginning. No one could have guessed that four months later, the entire country would come to a screeching halt; that we would find ourselves staying home—and stay home we did. For most of us, it seemed that the real enemy was boredom. Whether we are alone or with our family, what do we do with all this time confined to our homes? As seen in the news and on social media, people are coming up with all sorts of ways to express their creativity. People of all ages are sharing their artistic ideas, helping the rest of us to cope with our “stuck at home” syndrome. People have done this by using whatever is laying around the house. Is it not the way in which art originated? The people
Rock painting by one of my students
16 May 2020
of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods expressed their creativity by using what little they had, and it resulted in stone carvings like the Venus of Willendorf and the wall paintings at the Caves of Lascaux. Now, little kids are channeling their creative spirits and painting rocks and sidewalks. The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Minoan evolved rock painting into frescoes that depicted important aspects of their culture, and they developed architecture to honor their gods and their pharaohs. Today during the quarantine, people are being imaginative and using materials that they have plenty of, like the
Forest carved out of toilet paper tubes (hometone.com)
Toilet paper wall art (www.forumaski.com); use the doorway to the left as a size reference. As 3D art was emerging in the Western hemisphere of ancient civilization, the Chinese and Tibetan had invented paper in DIY cacti sculpture made of cardboard the Eastern hemisphere. The use of paper (Chehalem Culture Center) and ink was spreading throughout Asia along with the Buddhist religion. Ironically enough, it was not the Silk Road that brought paper into Europe. The Chinese Empire clashed with Pixel Art made of toilet paper tubes (www.architectureartdesigns.com) the Abbasid Empire in 751 and consequently lost the battle, and the cardboard boxes from online shopping and, paper-making master was capture. Once back of course, toilet paper, because we panic in Europe, paper spread across the continent, bought two truckloads.
