I WENT to a bookstore yesterday and got lost in the art section. Like when I was a child, I picked up a box of crayon that’s filled with many colors. I smelled them. But I smelled nothing. Have they lost their scents, or they just don’t smell the same to me anymore?
When I was a child, I had this peculiar fascination of colors. I didn’t just see them, I could smell them. They were so sweet as if I could taste them. Each color had its own distinct scent. And each scent reminded me of something. Like yellow reminded me of my yellow shirt, my yellow short and my yellow slippers.
One day, I wore them altogether. I was happy showing it off to my siblings and my sister painted my fingernails with yellow nail polish. It made me even happier. I ran out of the house to show it to my mother. But she did not approve. She said I looked like a walking sh*t. But I didn’t care. I thought I just looked like a banana.
Red reminded me of santol trees. I used to climb up its tree and picked some red leaves. I loved their color and how they smell. I really wanted to preserve them, so I stuffed them in the pages of my book. But later I discovered they would eventually turn to brown and smell like the earth. I liked the smell of the earth too. But now, they have lost all their scents to me.
Unscented as they may now seem, they still remind me of something. The bluntness of that experience I could never forget. The moment I feared drawing. I was in second grade. We had a drawing activity. We were told to draw any animal. It was easy I thought. I loved to draw. In fact, my notebook was full of drawing of trees, rice fields, rivers, maintains, and even busses. Of course, I colored all of them with my crayons. So, I drew a cat. I was so happy when I submitted it to my teacher, but she didn’t like it. She said it should look like a real cat. I told her that it was a cat. She said no. She showed me what a cat should look like. She compared my drawing to that of my seatmate’s. His was a cat and mine was just circles and lines. I went home that day crying. I have never failed in any quiz or activity.
The following day, we were asked again to draw an eagle. A real eagle not the ones in my notebook that looked like stretched letter M. So, I asked my seatmate to draw one for me after he’s through. I waited for him, but the time was almost up, so I decided to cheat. I took my book, inserted my bond paper and traced the drawing of the eagle with my pencil. I followed the marks after and colored it. But when I submitted it, my teacher saw the traces. She scolded me, took her long stick and stroke at my right hand twice. My classmates laughed at me and I cried so hard. The following morning, I was terrified of going to school. I feigned sickness. The next day, mother had to drag and carry me on her back to school. She learned about what happened and talked to my teacher. I thought it would be alright, but my teacher had gotten worse. The following week, my mother transferred me to another school.
That was the time I lost interest in drawing. In fact, I could not even remember when the last time I have drawn something was. All I can do now are just scribbles, circles and sticks. Good thing in college we could paint in abstract. But the more I learn about the arts, the more I remember my teacher in second grade. I would not have lost interest in drawing had she been appreciative of my work.
Now that I am teaching, I couldn’t help but cite her as an example. But even then, I still learned from her to never kill one’s love for the arts. Teaching is hard but teaching kids is harder. For children to develop love for the craft, they need appreciation and guidance than criticism. Limiting one’s imagination with strict rules or styles will not produce artists. Artists are free thinkers and they have wild imagination.
One cannot put more emphasis on the importance of arts in our lives. As we celebrate the arts month, may it be a reminder to all that now, more than ever, we need the arts. We live in a very stressful world and sometimes we can’t keep up with it. We need it to balance things out and to keep our humanity. Hence, for the arts to thrive, there should be a strong support system not just from the government but from all sectors as well. After all, art is not just a subject. It is about life and is life. Many great civilizations are known for their arts. And many artists had built great nations.