I log into DeviantART today, and see a new deviation and journal-post from my friend MirAngel. As I read through both the artists' comments in the art piece and the journal-post, I felt a lot of anger.
Read for yourself:
"My sister has been watching me work in my embodiment journal for months. And for months, she has expressed a huge desire to write, draw, and collage in a journal of her very own. Because I'm a tad (understatement) poor, I haven't quite been able to buy her the supplies to get started on her own, even though I've always gone to great pains to encourage her to pursue her artistic interests.
Today, she made a huge leap forward herself. When she was out shopping with my grandmother this evening, she bought a moleskine type book of her very own to write and draw in. WITH HER OWN CHRISTMAS MONEY that my grandmother had given her (she's 12). When she came home, she ran up to me, just overjoyed, and cheerfully asked if she could sit in the room with the baby and I (who was asleep while I was working) and collage with me.
As with my usual, I was very happy she was so interested in making art. While I sorted through my mountain of collage and scrapbooking papers, setting aside doubles and scraps for her own little book, I explained to her how to do collage, be it political, expressive, or poetic. As she sat there and snipped with the pair of scissors I loaned her, she seemed so happy...
My stepdad came to pick her up. Knowing what I do of not only his character, but his bad habit of throwing MY art supplies away when I was a kid (with dumbass reasons, too. One time, he threw away my colored pencils. Reason? " I wasn't doing my homework"....I was a strait A student. And graduated 6 months early), I cautiously asked her if he would let her have them. " I think so." she aid cheerfully. When he walked in, I made it very clear to my step dad that I had given her the papers and such to do her own collage, and if she couldn't have them, then he could at least give them back to me and I'd have them for her for her to work with when they felt she could handle them. He says ok, no prob, and they leave.
Fifteen minutes later, the phone rings. It's my sister, and she's in hysterics. I already knew what was coming.
" He took it all away." she cried. " He says I can't have them."
" Did he say why?" I asked, worried.
" No, he just says I can't have them."
....I called my mom on her cell phone to confront her about my step-dads behavior-sometimes I can get lucky enough to get her to listen to me, but she refused this time. " Her dad doesn't want her to have it." my mom said, and offered this BS explanation, which wasn't an explanation at all. " She'll get in trouble with it."
When she was with me, she drew a SEAL. A SEAL. What the FECK is the harm in that? What kind of trouble an a kid with a Birds and Blooms magazine and drawing a picture of a seal get into?
So I promised her that I would make it right; that I would buy her papers, magazines, and a molskine of her very own to put all her art in, and a box to keep here ( in my room , which has a lock on the door) for when she comes over.
I think it's wrong, WRONG for a child to be repressed in this way. I was. And I resented it all the way. Please help me to help my sister...it would mean the world to me, and to her."
As an artist, this really grinds my gears, and my heart goes out to Mir's sister. Scrapbooking and collaging is a harmless hobby, this 'getting in trouble with it' is the biggest load of bull I've heard. As a child, my mother encouraged me to be artistic - she used to sit with me as a toddler with magazines, newspaper and old sweet wrappers, and we'd collage, paint and draw. At nursery and the early years of primary school, they encouraged this as well, and it's stuck with me for life. I honestly don't know where I'd be without my artwork; I portray things visually that I can't always express verbally (including my body language). If that was repressed - if I had my materials taken away and my sketchbooks thrown away and was told to give it up 'just because', I'd start kicking the ass of the person responsible or go insane, and most likely both.
And I'm surely not the only one who feels that way.
If you can help out Mir and his sister, his DeviantART can be found here. Even if it's re-posting the story or offering words of support, I'm sure they'd really appreciate it.
Thanks.
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