One of the last projects I did at the center this year was an introduction to art lesson in coordination with Amanda (my fellow girls ed volunteer in Aleg). For almost every single one of these girls, this was the first time they have been given the opportunity to use their creativity through art and learn hands-on about things like the color wheel, drawing, African/Islamic art motifs and painting. We taught the girls how to create secondary colors from primary colors and then had them practice with a color by numbers and watercolor paints. From there Amanda taught the girls about some basic painting techniques and together we practiced by painting a flower using pointillism. On the next day we studied African and Islamic motifs and using the projector (a borrowed godsend from our bureau in Nouakchott!) we studied photos for the different type of art they could find throughout Mauritania and Western Africa.
The next step was the hardest, giving the girls absolute freedom to create their own painting of African/Islamic art. It’s a delicate balance of giving them examples to use but still making them push themselves to really create something original. In the end, it was a pretty successful couple days and you could see some of these girls discovering their artistic side. Even though there was only a few weeks left in the school year they keep asking when the next art class would be!! I guess I’ll just have to start planning one for next school year!
So for now the center is closed during the summer, with the exception of the 10th Annual Girl's Conference in Nouakchott at the end of June. Although its going to be an exhusting 4 days, im excited to be able to bring my 3 best girls to participate. Blog post on that to come in just a few short weeks!
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