girl power summer art experience

Thank you, Suzanne Stevens and Patricia Day Williams, for inspiring me to incorporate so many elements of the Hope Springs Women's Leadership Collaborative into my summer camp for girls this year. I feel that my experiences at Hope Springs have tremendously enriched what I have to offer to young girls.

First of all, let me say that we had a stupendous batch of girls this year. No whiners, very little negativity, and very little self trash talking. (Those who indulge in this are required to do pushups before continuing with the art activity, so the impulse is quickly squelched) They were fun, happy people, open to sharing new experinces with new friends.

Of the girls assembling here each day, I have known one since birth, two for a couple of years, and one since March. Three girls were brand new to me. Matti came down from Cleveland for the third summer in a row to help lead. I've known Matti since she was four months old.

We began with introductions - the donning of nametags and the ritual forming of a group bouquet (to be painted later in the week) - and then, formed a marching band that wiggled and wound its noisy way all over the backyard. The band members came inside to select a personal journal, in which they each wrote about art, what it is and what sorts of people make it.

I made a plaster cast of each girl's face while the others happily beaded coils of memory wire with sparkly patterns of color. While we were working, the sun came out, and we went back out onto the grass to do sun salutations in a smiling circle.

The next day was sunny from the start so we began with sun salutations, added some animal poses (flamingo, dolphin, lion, turtle) and danced. We came inside to enjoy some sorbet made from frozen berries in the Vitamix.

We painted our masks, added glitter, bits of fabulous trim, while dancing all over the kitchen to the sweet sounds of Taylor Swift, John Mayer and Katie Perry.

The girls returned to the bubble of silence under which they had previously selected their journal and each chose a flavored lip balm with which more fully to express their gender. Then we journaled about masks: how we all - at some time - present ourselves differently from how we feel inside. We played with sculpey, an intensely colorful clay that hardens in the oven. Many girls made more jewelry; one chose to make miniature furniture and incredibly small decorative items like a fruit bowl and vase of flowers.

On day three, during sun salutations, we each took a turn bragging about our breakfast, which revealed a general need for more nurturance from the Vitamix, so we came inside and had fruit smoothies. After smoothies, the girls hunted in the shade garden for giant colorful bubble wands and then moved gracefully, making bubbles, to the sounds of sanskrit chanting (thanks to Karen Johns and her gorgeous cd, Saprema). Once inside, we journaled about happiness. Then the girls broke into two teams and arranged a set of words into a poem which each group then performed dramatically for the other using a drum and furniture. Back outside, the girls took up brushe and paint again to learn how to capture and compose a still life in acrylic on canvas. They took instruction so well, and were so receptive to suggestions as to how to make their paintings better, that we decided to extend the still life painting into day four.

After sun salutations and a Vitamix snack on day four, we finished the still life paintings. Then we chose silly bands and journaled and talked about energy and power and danced and sang along with Kelly Clarkson in her music video, Miss Independence. There are no words to describe the joy in the room, or the cuteness. The talking progressed into a process of visualizing a mandala - a visual and collborative manifestation of the girls' souce of power. They chose a flowering vine as the border element, and the earth to serve as the mandala's center. Overnight, each girls's wedge of mandala was basecoated in her power color (pink, red, light blue, sky blue, light green and adventure green) and when she returned on day five, it was ready to be adorned with paint, glitter, letter tiles, and beads.

At about 11am on day five, the girls were done working, ready to play outside while I transformed the kitchen into a gallery and set out party food for our expected guests. Soon, the house was flooded with admiring parents, siblings, uncles and grandparents. We drank every possible shade of pink lemonade, both sparkling and still, munched cookies, pastry, baklava, and strawberries, and marveled at all the girls had accomplished during the week.

Photos were taken, much hugging ensued, artwork was collected, and we took our leave, with promises to write, to keep creating, and to return next summere. I know that I will look forward to it all year long.