When I was in elementary school, I was put into a special ed. class called Art Therapy. I don’t know exactly why but looking back I can see that most of the other kids in the class came from broken homes and some had behavioural issues. One kid had a father, and then a step-father, who both died before he was in grade three. For me, it may have been the broken family, although my parents were apart before my earliest memories could even form. It may also have been because I developed self-sabotaging behaviours. Whatever the reason, I loved getting out of math or French class to go get elbow deep in some poster paints or clay and getting a stack of cream-filled cookies at the end of it all.
One of the things I recognize now when I look back on those art therapy sessions is that kids spend a lot of time in mourning because the small grievances have the ability to rip our tiny hearts apart. While I’ve become good at using my words to express my grief, it only applies to when I have the time and space to write it out. If you want an oral explanation of what's going on around me or in my head you’ll have to give me some time with a fresh sheet of paper because it’s challenging to sort that mess out between my brain and my mouth.
It’s a wonderful tool, art, when it comes to mourning. Something so devastating as the attacks on Paris yesterday sent the whole world into a tailspin of emotion. And with it, a whole lot of information that is still at the time of writing this is still shifting and shaking into place. When so few definite things can be expressed in the news, or on Twitter or by word of mouth, we turn to the image-makers for the symbols that will reunite us beyond the rhetoric. It happened when the offices of Charlie Hebdo were attacked as it happens right now. While that attack was inspired by a cartoon that appeared in the French magazine, this one inspired art from one of their cartoonists, Joann Sfar, on Saturday.
1. France is a country of love, kisses, freedom.
11. The people who died tonight were outside to live, to drink, to sing. The didn’t know someone had declared war on them.
Images from top: Gary Taxali, Jean Jullien, Caleb Neelon, artwork based on the piece by Jean Jullien, Aashmani