My Love Story (Immigrant Art Reflection)

Nosotros amamos a Dios porque él nos amó primero.

1 Juan 4:19

During a recent art session with immigrant women seeking asylum, they created a mixed media art piece of their love story. The guided meditation included four steps to guide the reflection and the art process.

First: Use a pen or pencil and write your love story. How do you feel or experience the love of God in your life? Who are the people in your life who have shown you love? Grandparents? Parents? Brothers and sisters? Children? Grandchildren? Aunts and uncles? Priest or minister? Teacher? Friend? What have you learned about love from these special people. How has their love given you encouragement, blessing, joy, or hope?

 Second: Choose 1-2 favorite colors of acrylic paint and 2-3 different stencils—symbols (shapes) of your love story. Use a blue plastic square to scrape paint over the background (cover the words) and then quickly place a stencil on top of the paint before it dries and use a baby wipe to rub off the paint in the stencil/hole ( “reverse stencil art technique”). Repeat with a second color of paint and a different stencil. Clean stencils with baby wipes.

Third: Use an oil pastel (like a crayon) to fill the page with hearts, start with a small heart and then make bigger and bigger hearts until the page is full and you have covered the stencils. Use a pen or pencil and write inside and around the heart shapes. You could write a prayer or a love letter to a special person in your life.

Four: Add stamped images, cut shapes, and pretty tape. Outline shapes with puffy paint. Write your name and date.

Adding (Art) Bits & Pieces

There's no excuse for "no time for art." It's clearly reasonable to not have sufficient time to work up a full art reflection, but there's always time for a wee bit of art. Pick up your journal and add a simple art layer...anything that suits the momentary muse!

Here I added cut paper ephemera to a previously "done" journal page. 

Another stencil layer is always a quick addition to a journal page in progress. 

The stamped background from another "no time for art" evening beckened for another layer. I'd just read the appalling background info on the tedious and (probably) unjust procedures for asylum seekers when I scooted to my art room. Instead of hopeful faces of the immigrants seeking asylum with whom I am a volunteer chaplain, I was struck by (literally) bars (to freedom).

 My quickie evening art session included laying down a tinted layer of gesso and running a Catalyst texture tool through the wet gesso/paint to express the prison feeling of these immigrant women seeking asylum. 

Symbolic Significance

I can't help but think about the subtlety of symbols in artful reflection. When I choose my own shapes from my vast selection of stamps and stencils, I often choose with intentionality. However, equally often, I simply gravitate toward a shape for what seems like no particular reason. Then, once the reflection is completed I can look back and identify what (probably) means what.

 In theological talk, a sacrament is "a visible external sign of an internal invisible grace." In many regards, symbols offer a parallel role for art. 

Layered Reflection of Courage

Guided art reflections are excellent for helping to process one's life experiences. As I work with women who have little to no experience in mixed media art/reflection (not a "normal thing" to have experience with!!), it has been challenging to break the process into small "layering" steps. It is very counter-intuitive to "cover up" an art something (or even a written word) that is on a lower/first layer. It is only when I break the steps down, ideally with pictures, that it becomes more manageable and understandable.
The example here shows multiple layers of art which began with a written first layer reflecting how the immigrant seeking asylum in the US had embodied courage during her pre/journey. You can see a little bit of the words still visible in the upper left corner in the pink area. As she gradually built the layers with symbols of hope for her future, the story of her past becomes absorbed through art into the hope she is expressing for her new future. She gave her piece a title for the "top layer" of Dios es Amor (God is Love) and also wrote her hopes and prayer for the future on the bottom left.
The art reflection was inspired by the Biblical text, Isaiah 43:1-5 which talks about God calling people from the north and south and east and west and gathering them together to worship God who is the creator of all people. This text then is included in the art piece (I provided the printed words on the peach paper which are evident here on the top left of the art). First-timers at layered art always find it strange to "cover up" the words they have just written with a big piece of anything, such as this scripture. However, as they move to the second and third and even fourth layer during the art process they begin to experience the value of the guided art reflection. Novices always seen quite surprised at how much they like their completed piece!

Courage: Past, Present, and Future

How have you had to be courageous in your life? Courage was the theme for the recent guided art meditation for women inside an immigrant family detention center. I asked the women to rapidly write when/how they had been courageous before they made the decision to leave their home country, during the process of leaving, and while on the journey to the USA. The written portion closed with a prayer for courage in the journey ahead.

Some of the women write much detail, spending 30 minutes or more writing their experiences and thoughts. Others write only a few sentences. It seems counter-intuitive to the women, but immediately following the written portion they begin adding layers of art. Quite often, the words are entirely covered and it is difficult to impossible to read any portion of what they had written. The idea with the written portion is to "dump" their feelings and experiences, to name their joys and struggles and then to move into the art portion with the vision toward God's presence in their lives (past, present, and future).

      During the art process, I talk with the women about the importance of symbols. There are a myriad of stencils and stamps available, they choose symbols and shapes which hold meaning for their lives and/or which bring them hope.

Flowers symbolize growth and new life.

The butterfly (mariposa) is one of the most-selected symbols by the women.

Timeline Reflection inside an Immigrant Family Detention Center

It is very frustrating for women in a family detention center to wait and wait and wait, wondering and worrying if they will be released and allowed to continue on to family (already) waiting for them in the U.S. or if they will be summarily deported back to the horrors of their homeland.It is particularly frustrating for those waiting while a family comes and goes but they are still waiting. The art reflection project I developed for the women was created with this frustration in mind. For the timeline project, their goal was to see how short their time is in the detention center compared to the big picture of life.
They wrote their story on the bottom layer of the art about their experiences in the detention center: what activities they and their children did, what their living arrangements were like, classes they attended, school, etc. They are locked up and waiting, but there are many interesting and even fun activities to do for the others and the children. The point was to name the blessings amidst the waiting.

They then painted over the words with watercolors and added stencils of symbolic shapes for their life (past, present, or future) using tempura or acrylic paint. The timeline is a piece of pretty art tape and it was placed halfway to represent the medium or average experiences in life. I asked the women to estimate how long they thought they would live and to put that number on the far right of the timeline. Most said they expected to live to age 100; a few said age 80. The average age of the participants was 22-25, and the timeline helped give the perspective that there is much more of their live to live before them then what has already been lived. In the big picture of life, "now" at the detention center is very short.

They put dots above the taped middle line for events in their lives that were good, and dots below the taped line to indicate event that were unhappy. They could add words to explain those dots or they could leave them blank. A stencil or stamp of a mother and/or a child to symbolically added their family into the art. They could glue on the Serenity Prayer and a scripture verse of the "fruits of the Spirit" if they wanted. The final touch: write the "fruit of the Spirit" that you most need to help you through this time of waiting. PATIENCE was the popular choice!

"Please Help My Country"

Imagine if you could write an important person on the international scene as ask for help with your country. Who would you write? What would you say?

Here is a multi-layer art reflection to guide one through the thought process from letter writing about the problems of one's homeland and that then moves to celebrating the strengths. It mixes diverse art media. The goal isn't a pretty piece of art journaling. Rather, the goal is thoughtful reflection through mixed media. The original context was intended for immigrants seeking asylum, but the concept holds true for anyone who wants to reflect critically and analytically through art on the challenges of one's country. 

Use carbon paper and trace over a printout of your home country. Write a letter and then top with key words which define what is good about your country. 

Use stencils and stamps to symbolize your dreams & desires. Here the butterfly symbolizes freedom and also being a new creation. 

Visiting Art Journalist: An Overview of Ideas

Visiting art journalist Sabrina got her jumpstart in mixed media art journaling when she was a ministry intern three summers ago at the church where I am senior pastor. She quickly became immersed in the Christian education and outreach activities, many of which involved mixed media art.

We also did art journaling as part of the supervised practice of ministry debriefing sessions, and she later went on a mission trip to Mexico with me which involved more mixed media as well as art journaling.

Now she teaches what she's learned to high school students in an after school program. The reflections featured here are some of her examples from her teaching experiences or her reflections on her own learning journey.

Listing Priorities

It is an excellent use of an existing journal page to top the art with lists. In particular, write lists which help to organize (and prioritize) where you are, who you are, and what you want to (still) do along the journey called life. I used the simple collage piece (below) as a catalyst for rethinking and reprioritizing my current job description for what will be my new. The important reminder (above) came during writing my lists.

Letting go: Create a list for how it is now( another list for how it needs to be; and a third list that clearly defines what must get cut in order to make the new happen. 

Transition time begins when you name what you are letting go of so you can be the new you. 

Prayer Board for VBS "Hand Prayer"

We used a four-step mixed media process to create layers of art as prayer during summer VBS. Each day the kids added art elements to their prayer board. 

Day one they drew around their hands with a neon colored oil pastel and then sprayed watercolors over stencils. 

They had the option of adding a second layer of stenciling. 

We talked out the significance of shapes as symbols on the second day, and they added stamped images to their prayer boards. 

The kids added words to their payers on day three (teens & adults helped the little ones). 

The prayer board was art-accessible for all ages and art sill levels. 

VBS Teaching Tool for Mixed Media Art Prayer

Creating a teaching tool which shows the (daily) art steps makes it easier to "show and tell" how to do the various steps of a layered mixed media art project during a weeklong VBS. The visuals teach the children and also show the adult helpers how to assist the children. It requires four boards cut to the size the children will be using.

As you develop the project, the bottom layer goes on all four boards. The second layer goes on three boards; the third layer on two boards; and the final layer only on the fourth board. The graduated layers also helps kids see what they missed (and how they can catch up) if they skip a day of VBS. 

Experimenting and Working up Artsy Theology Projects

I love the idea of reworking (salvaging) an overworked art journal page to transform it into something altogether new. Here's an idea from Dina Wakley on resurrecting an overworked page. Draw a pattern on it that serves as a mask and then paint over the entire rest of the page. 

Cover the background with white (acrylic) paint. 

Then top with a second color (without waiting for the white to dry). Add a third color on the outer edges of the page the create shadow and depth. 

The lines inevitably get blurred in the painting (above). Add another layer to deepen the lines. Use a white Gelli Roll pen to add journaling (or doodling).