Off to school

This morning I ventured out in the rain, crossed the schoolyard & entered in to the old mansion that now serves as the school here in Mooste. I snooped around the school a little bit before finding the classroom where I was to meet Monika, the art teacher to sit in on her class. I noticed that the computer lab was well equipped, comparable to the Pacific Northwest College of Art, where I earned my BFA, only the windows looked out over farmland & it was to be used by rural Estonian (8-14 year olds). It comes as a bit of a surprise, but the Estonians seem to be ahead of the USA in the proliferation of WiFi (free wireless internet). Even in a small village of 500, we are all wired in, not to mention even the regional bus that brought me here from Tallinn.

Upon entering the classroom, the teacher introduced me as the resident artist at MoKS & I smiled as I took a seat in one of the empty liitle chairs. They were making mother’s day cards out of colored paper and shiny sequins. I observed that the boys were equally as engaged in making their cards as the girls. I guess in grade 5 the kids are still not too self-conscious & or concerned with the “coolness” of what they are doing. They all seemed to slip into their own creative worlds as they made important decisions about which scissors to use to get the right zigzag edge & or where to place the heart that they just cut out.

I noticed that most of the girls were wearing blue jeans, and hoodies & even managed to have received some trickle down punk influence, with pins and skulls & crossbones silk screened to their clothes. I was reminded of being that influencial age, discovering all of the different ways one could adorn oneself- & choosing what kind of aesthetic appealed to me. The class was only 45 min long & then the school bell rung, which sounded almost like an accordion. After the kids left the teacher showed me the exhibition that they are getting ready for in the basement for a special mother’s day event. There was a plethora of paintings, embroideries, woodwork, ceramics, and sculptures made with felt & other recycled materials. I think that they will manage just fine to carve soap tomorrow.