Project Profile — Landscapes from the Mind's Eye

- by Kate Mock

This school year, ArtSafe has expanded our partnership with the YWCA afterschool program to provide Youth GIFT to students at Wedgewood Middle School in addition to those at Trevitt and Pilgrim Elementary Schools. The collaboration has continued to present students with opportunities for learning and opportunities for fun: for one afternoon at Wedgewood, those in the program were able to go anywhere they wanted!

This was no ordinary field trip. Artist Suanne M. Goings wanted students "to experience how we see the same things differently...to practice creative visualization," and so they embarked on the project titled Landscapes from the Mind's Eye.

The students were asked to choose where they would go if they could go anywhere imaginable. They illustrated the desired destination by drawing between five and seven lines across the length of a paper, then coloring the picture with oil pastels. Lines could be straight or curved; they could intersect or run parallel. Everything rested in the hands of the artists, so the final products exhibited a wide range of styles. Once completed, students described their landscapes to each other; Goings recalled seeing everything from bedrooms to outer space.

The adventure did not stop there. When Wedgewood art teacher Ms. Keller heard about the project she decided to share it with her students, but she needed help. As experienced mind-landscapers Patricia Gheen and Amber Rhoads volunteered to teach the class.

Gheen, 12, has been enrolled in YouthGIFT since the beginning of the school year. Landscapes remains her favorite project to date and she is glad to have shared the experience with others. Gheen nodded quickly when asked if she enjoys the afterschool program and said, "You learn new things, and if you're bored in the summer you can do a project that you learned."

Read More Stories

Director's Corner |Success Story: Heidi McLean
Artist Profile: Suanne Goings | Project Profile : Landscapes from the Mind's Eye
New Facilitators' Guide | Thank You to All ArtSafe Funders | ArtSafe Home