Working with Ray Keighley

“How did he do that?” I heard my students suddenly whisper as Ray Keighley seemed to transform his piece effortlessly with each swift stroke of his hand. 

Last Wednesday, Ray Keighley led our students in a painting workshop in preparation for the collaborative art piece at the conference.  He showed them different techniques using sponges, water and paint brushes and encouraged them to explore, to make mistakes and then to transform those mistakes into art.  It was wonderful to see an entire class, fully engaged in their creations. 

Some of the students laughed at their mistakes, but rather than getting discouraged, they experimented and tried transforming them into something completely different, in short, they were learning.  One student was disappointed with the shape of her mountains, so she added colours and symbols of the Seven Sacred Animals inside the forms she’d created and her piece came to life; another student started off with little direction and just put colour onto his page, but when he decided that rather than starting over, he would simply blend the reds and the oranges together, he found himself with a beautiful sunset background for his truth seeking turtle.

Ray spent time on his own work at the front, showing the students blending techniques and little tricks he’d learned, but his favourite part was obviously going from table to table talking with them, asking them about their piece and teaching. 

These same students continue to ask themselves “how can I represent something as complex as Treaty citizenship in an art piece?”  This guiding question is one our students are working at exploring through symbols and their own understanding.  Wednesday, April 29^th is the day when the 250 students from Martin, Balfour, Scott and Campbell will create their large-scale collaborative art piece with Ray Keighley at First Nation University of Canada.

Leia