Monday, October 29, 2012

Doors



For the past three years or so I have been asked to act as a sort of informal commentator at an annual event where children's artworks are displayed in a park. It is about an hour and a half of fairly solid chatter walking among the various pieces with the teachers who worked with the kids. I invariably find something to say, but it does leave me somewhat drained of creativity.
On the way back home I took a very minor detour to visit the first of the series of entry doors I have made over the past few years. I was not responsible for any of the ironwork on this one, just the wooden parts, the glass and the copper and brass plates protecting the lower regions. The owners seem to have left the steel to rust and not refinished the door, the weathered look is not unappealing, but there may be some shortening of the life expectancy with no maintenance work. I didn't feel particularly comfortable lurking on the doorstep, but I did take a quick snap, perhaps I should have moved the jaunty umbrella awaiting the return of the inhabitants, but it might be the only thing holding the place together.
The exhibition of kids work is a good thing, but it confirms how little place for creative work there is in the school curriculum today. I wonder if there will ever be a solid place for activities that cannot be evaluated on a points system but that have intrinsic value as somehow managing to open doors for at least a few of the developing minds that participate.