When we moved to Jackson in January of 2006, a flyer came home from my daughter's school about a community art project at the Mississippi Museum of Art called LifeShards. She was just entering Casey Elementary as a Kindergarten student, and my 2-year-old son was not yet in school.
Even though our house was still full of boxes that needed to be unpacked, we went to the first meeting of LifeShards on that first Saturday in January. Originally, LifeShards was a community response to Katrina, and it aimed to help families -- post Katrina-- connect with each other through making mosaics. Since we were new to Jackson, it helped us make new friends. And, coming from a small Mississippi town, we were eager to take advantage of the many cultural opportunities Jackson has to offer.
We made many individual and collective projects with mosaics including a piece for the Mississippi Museum of Art and a piece for the Mississippi Department of Education. My house has evidence of LifeShards all through it-- light switch plates, tiles, birdhouses, and picture frames. As LifeShards changed from its focus on mosaics to other art forms, it also began to meet once a month on the first Saturday instead of every Saturday. While we have not been to every single LifeShards gathering, we have made most of them.
We have had great fun through these three years and have learned so much from artists, friends, and each other. We have made mosaics and Styrofoam prints, drawn portraits, collaged, painted, and pieced together paper quilts. We have re-purposed recycled materials and fashioned figures, musical instruments, flying shoes, and altered books. We have taken knowledge of new art techniques acquired at LifeShards and shared them with others at church, other schools, and at home. We have incorporated skills learned into projects for school. We have been guided through exhibits of Jacob Lawrence, Marshall Bouldin III, and John James Audubon at the Mississippi Museum of Art.
The photo collages in this post reveal how my children have grown in three years. I am so grateful for how LifeShards has both enriched and changed our lives. I hope that Lifeshards will continue and that I may continue to watch my children grow through visual art experiences.
Growing up in a small town Arkansas, I did not have an opportunity like this. While I had some exposure to art in elementary school, the tracks we took in junior high and high school were determined by scheduling. If I wanted to play an instrument, I couldn't also be in choir or visual arts. My children have already learned in three short years what I have learned in forty years. My first serious exposure to visual arts was in college. Theirs was at ages 3 and 6. Just the other day, I overheard my now 9-year-old daughter explaining to my 6-year-old son how and why Matisse started making cut-outs. Thank you Casey. Thank you LifeShards.
All of these amazing photos and more were taken by Kay Holloway and can be viewed on Elizabeth Robinson's photo sets on Flickr. Kay's photographs of the children, activities, artwork, and materials document three years of community and creativity at LifeShards. Families from all over Jackson have attended LifeShards, including several families from Casey Elementary.
Won't you join us? Do you have a LifeShards story to tell?
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