Painting by a young woman at juvenile hall.

I am anticipating going to juvenile hall this week for our second class of this 8-week series. We were supposed to have our second class last week, but the facility was on lockdown. I’m anxious to find out what happened and I hope it wasn’t anything involving the girls we are painting with.

Our first session with this group of young women really surprised me. Three of the five participants dove right in and painted with intensity and sincerity. Usually it takes a few sessions before they trust me enough to open up and engage emotionally. This time, they took the prompt, “think about a time you had a strong emotion,” and for the most part, they used the Brush Fire process to go deep in to their expression.

The two girls who did not immediately engage were more usual for a first painting session. We are asking something strange of them ­ how many of us have been encouraged to translate our thoughts and feelings to the visual metaphor? The weirdness of the task at hand on top of trust issues along with preconceived notions of what art is can result in some serious resistance. I look forward to seeing if there have been any shifts in their thinking as a result of our first meeting and I’m curious to see what risks they might take next.

The last time we did a workshop in juvenile hall, the girl who appeared the least interested in painting wound up really connecting to her creative process in the end. She went from looking blankly at her paints for the first three or four session to really expressing herself. Her pride in showing her work at the end-of-session art show was palpable. You just never know where they are going to end up!

Above is a picture of her final painting and what she had to say about it:

This painting says I am tired of being told what to do and how to do it. It shows all my feelings and all of it fading away except for the madness, sadness, and anxiousness is still there. The happiness, freedom, fun etc. are fading. It expresses the way I am feeling.