“Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.
So make the best of this test, and don’t ask why.
It’s not a question, but a lesson learned in time.
It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right.
I hope you had the time of your life.”
- Green Day, "Time of Your Life"
For our artist date, we chose to draw and colour a picture of Artist Child. We did this while listening to songs on our MP3 player, some of our favourite songs. Artist Child got to choose which songs we skipped and which we listened to. Some of the songs we chose to listen to were "Murmel Murmel Murmel" by Robert Munsch, "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats, "Something There" from "Beauty and the Beast", and "The Best Day" by Taylor Swift. The song we listened to when we finished was "Time of Your Life" by Green Day, which we both thought was a very good finishing song and one we should include in our reflection. Artist Child thought it described the start of our reunited friendship very well.
We chose to draw of picture of Artist Child because she thought it was a good way for me to get to know her better. We also picked drawing because it’s something I’ve rarely done since I was little because I was never very good at it. Artist Child told me that I should try now anyways, and it would look good to me when I was done. She took her one braid out at the beginning because she liked it better that way. She had just finished doing some finger painting when we started our date and didn’t have time to clean up yet! We hoped that by sharing some time together we would start off our friendship again after being apart so long. I asked Artist Child why she was wearing glasses now, even though I don’t wear them. She said that she liked wearing them and that I would like them someday too. That scared me a little bit. Is Artist Child trying to tell me I’ll be blind later? She’s laughing at me.
After our date now, we both feel really happy, happier than we’ve been in a long time. We feel almost free, free from responsibility. When we were working on the drawing, we felt nothing though, but in a good way. We blocked out everything (even the music sometimes and forgot to switch it!), and felt a lot more connected that way, like we were working together. It made us feel little again, accidently colouring outside the lines sometimes, and we even stuck out our tongue once we were concentrating so much.
The date really helped to inspire creativity, which is why we chose to colour the drawing. The colours that we picked were really important Artist Child said. I wanted to use purple, but Artist Child wouldn’t let me because she said that purple was the colour I hid behind all the time, the colour that I was supposed to like. She told me to use red and green and yellow because I liked them better really. I chose green for the paint instead of red so she wouldn’t look all bloody, and she thought that was a good idea too. But she told me that the buttons on her overalls should be red, the little things. She said that they should be red because they’re like the little bits of hurt we have to remember, but are okay to remember. That hurt was okay sometimes. I put a Band-Aid on her arm so that some of the hurt would be better. Then I coloured the paint green and Artist Child said it was like the growing things outside that we could paint, all the wonderful things outside that used to amaze us. I didn’t know what colour to colour her T-shirt, and she told me I should colour it yellow like sunshine. This reminded us of the song "You Are My Sunshine" that we always used to sing when we were little. It also reminded us of Mr. Sutch who helped me connect with Artist Child when I was scared in Grade 9. "You Are My Sunshine" was the first song I learned how to play on Clarinet, Alto Sax and Bari Sax. Now I call people “sunshine” a lot because they are all my sunshines! Artist Child says she thinks they are too. She wants me to write out "You Are My Sunshine" for you.
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.
You make me happy, when skies are gray.
You never know dear, how much I love you.
Please don’t take my sunshine away.”
~ Jimmy Davis, "You Are My Sunshine"
We wished that we had that song on our MP3 to listen to while we drew our picture of Artist Child, but we don’t. We’re listening to it on the computer now though.
Artist Child wants you to have the picture to go with the reflection, but she wants to know if she could have it back really really soon so that I can hang it on my wall. She hopes that that’s okay.
Amanda and Artist Child.
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