Creating #MeuralMoments At Home
For those families and groups who find themselves at home unexpectedly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, art and photography can provide some much-needed respite—a meaningful focus in creating positive, enjoyable and enlightening communal moments.
So we thought we’d encourage our wider community to create some ‘Meural Moments’ at home— 5 to 10 minutes of coming together as a group to explore and enjoy a single work of art, a couple of times a week.
To support this, we’ve some tips on how to approach the discussion, based on the advice of museum educators, art teachers and parents themselves.
- Relax
There’s no right answer with art. There’s no riddle for you to decipher. What you see in a painting, someone else might not and that’s fine. You need no expertise, just your eyes.
- Look
Take it slow. You might feel a little self-conscious at first, but start by taking a basic inventory of what you see. I like to squint my eyes and see what jumps out at me (color, shapes). Then I just make a list of everything I notice. For example, using the Edward Hopper artwork below: a large patch of sunlight, an open door on to water, the horizon, a back room with a red chair, and a framed picture above it.
After 30 seconds to a minute, turn around and, as a group, try to remember everything you saw.
When you look back at the artwork, did you overlook anything?
- Describe
Now it’s time to take turns exploring some of the things on your inventory further, while trying to use as expressive language as possible to describe what you see in detail.
Questions you might discuss:
- What adjectives would you use to describe this painting?
- How would you describe the colors, shapes, subject matter?
- What’s the largest/smallest object/shape, is there a dominant color?
- Can you see what kind of materials the artist has used, and what textures they’ve created?
- How would you describe this painting to a person who hasn’t seen it?
For example, returning to the Edward Hopper artwork, I might begin with something like: “My eye is really drawn to the large patch of sunlight in the foreground, and the way it is mirrored in the room behind. The white wall seems like it is made of plaster, as there is a rough texture revealed by the sun, but it also feels a little faded - like it hasn’t been painted in a while. The stillness of the rooms is in contrast to the moving water immediately outside the open door.
- Interpret
Taking a step further, start to interpret the artwork.
Questions you might discuss:
- Is there a story taking place? (Even an abstract artwork, might invoke narrative ideas).
- What mood do you associate with the artwork?
- If you could get inside this artwork, what might if feel like?
- What title might you give the artwork?
- Why do you think the artist made this artwork?
- What does the title of the work tell you (if anything)?
Following on from the description above, I might start by adding: “Although there is nothing unusual about the rooms, the fact that the door opens directly on to the sea gives the painting a surreal, strange feeling… “
- Connect
And finally, take some time to think about how the artwork relates to you.
- How does it make you feel?
- Does it remind you of other artworks you’ve seen?
- Does it make you think about anything else related to your own life?
For example, Hopper’s Rooms by the Sea reminds me of how I was equally fascinated by and scared of the sea as a child; of how I always wanted to jump off the side the boat, but was terrified of what lay beneath the surface.
Be sure to tell us about some of your favorite artworks and your discussions about them.
