Residency 1: Unmesh Inamdar Art Academy, India ( 39 hours completed )

Residency 2: Children’s Residential Treatment Center (teens) ( 2 hours)

Shadowing: Shakun Maheshwari teaching artist, COMPAS ( 4 hours)

I shadowed Shakunji on Tuesday. The lessons were at Oakwood Elementary school. We worked with 4 and 5 graders. Shakunji taught Rangoli and introduce students to Indian culture. The lesson included a 2-day workshop for an hour. We did the first workshop and the second is supposed to be next week.

I wanted to learn how I teach and share my skillset which comes from my background with everyone. I wanted to learn the technicality and essence of Indian art forms. I wanted to find a balance between Indian but not appropriation.

I have learned a lot from the Shakunji. I observed that she gave time to students to experiment with rice flour to make Rangoli. I think that allowed students to use their imagination and to broaden the definition of what is art. Rangoli is a temporary art. Shakunji opened up the question of permanent and temporary in her introduction which helped students to know the outcome of the lesson. They know from the beginning that they are not going to have the final artwork. The lesson is about the process. I think to identify Rangoli it is important to be temporary. In the result-oriented world, I think the lesson was very powerful.

When I was thinking of teaching Rangoli, I wanted to figure out the way to make it permanent and that was the main reason I wanted to learn how Indian artist teaches Rangoli or folk art. Observing Shakun helped me to understand the importance of Indian folk art and it’s principals. It is significant to find the right approach to make art form as your own and easy to learn for others especially for the people who don’t have the background. Shakunji’s lesson aid me as an Indian teaching artist.

On Wednesday I went to the Children’s Residential Treatment Center. Carmen had an English lesson that day but students were allowed to work on art. They were working on a design for t-shirt printing. More students were interested in doing portraits to print on the t-shirt. It was a fun and relaxing day.