Last month, Jim Klein was invited to a local junior high school in Colorado to speak. His audience? A group of seventh grade art students. He took some time to discuss what he shared with the young artists that day.
Q: What brought you to speak at the school?
Jim: The art teacher invited me to join them for a bit. My granddaughter also attends school there, so I was more than happy to. We had a nice discussion with an open-forum, questions and answers.
Q: What kinds of things did you talk about with the kids?
Jim: We had access to a projector, so I pulled up my website and went through the Online Gallery. We selected a few of my paintings and asked interpretations of what they saw within them. It was really interesting! The kids would look at a each other and one student would interpret it a certain way and then another would explain what they saw. It was more often than not completely different from each other as well as my own. That’s the beauty of abstract art.
Q: Did you leave them with any advice?
Jim: I did. I encouraged the kids to look at everything: at the clouds, at the dirt, at the grass. To see what you see and just paint. In the classroom, there was a brick wall on one side of the room. I asked them to study the patterns and what they see. Don’t be influenced by outside voices. To look deeply and openly, and to listen to their voice within, to paint freely and create.
Q: It sounds like it was a successful discussion.
Jim: They were very engaged and seemed like everyone had a really great time. I know I did. I would love to go back and speak again.