Columbines added to Flower Power Series

[Mattison]

: > Artist Mattison Fitzgerald adds Columbines to 'Flower Power'
: > Series
: >
: > May 12, 1999, Silicon Valley, San Jose, Ca.... Over the last year, I
: > have been working on a series of paintings called 'Flower Power'.
: > Today, I added a grouping of columbines to the series as a message
: > to American Artists and parents world wide to stand up for support
: > of creativity and the arts in your schools and neighborhoods and
: > communities. It is apparrent to me that why we are seeing youth in
: > America today continue to destroy each other is that we are
: > witnessing the first generation of kids who were raised without the
: > arts in their schools.
: >
: > The fad for cutting the arts from schools has appeared to have
: > caught up with us in a very destructive trend of killings and suicides
: > as a release of frustration. Cutting of the arts has become a grave
: > and destructive mistake and our youth are paying for it in many
: > ways and even with their lives.
: >
: > It is important for people to understand that when the arts were
: > removed from schools that what was removed was a venue for
: > understanding differences. When they cut the music programs they
: > removed a venue for developing achievement. When they removed
: > the dance and drawing classes they removed a mode of
: > communication that consistently allowed the arts to give a venue
: > and a way to support differences in everyone and allowed an
: > avenue for improvement of self esteem for young people.
: >
: > The arts are of great importance to the cultural fabric of developed
: > countries and as we see a decline of the arts we see a decline of the
: > culture in total. Just like the romans verses the greeks in art
: > history. Today the demise of the arts can be translated to what we
: > are experiencing in the shootings of young people like in America
: > or suicides of youth in Japan. It is important that the arts be
: > employed at very heightened levels in our societies and cultures in
: > order to seek improvement and healing of the individual.
: >
: > Heightened attention to coursework in the arts in schools around
: > America and elsewhere will allow people to understantd
: > themselves, will allow them to grow, develop, heal and improve in
: > areas where science and sports do not reach. Heightened support
: > of the arts will allow young people and communities to reach into
: > their souls, it will give them places to succeed in ways they would
: > never have tapped without the christening of a mural, without the
: > applause after performance. The arts allows the ability for kids to
: > dance at the sea and feel comfortable in simply expressing joys or
: > sorrows in forms that words cannot.
: >
: > Just like the columbine in a series of paintings as a mark in time, the
: > ability to express feelings in ways that connect us without words
: > has geat value. The arts ability to empower thought that can
: > inspire others can build self esteem through symbolism and
: > symbolism is a powerful tool for leadership. This type of thinking
: > and communicating is learned through the arts.
: >
: > By requiring the arts in the neighborhoods and in your childrens
: > lives you will be giving these kids a place to create, a place to grow
: > strong, a place to vent, a place to understand themselves, a place
: > to understand each other and a place to celebrate differences. By
: > allowing the arts in schools you will at the same time be allowing
: > the kids to develop key and important differences in themselves
: > that can also aid the development of strong self images and their
: > ability to understand the differences in others.
: >
: > As it appears today, your kids lives quite well may depend on it. It
: > is important to demand that freedom of expression and arts
: > programs be added back into the National Education programming
: > for American kids and teens.
: >
: > As I think back to my school years in a place just like Columbine
: > High School I can still remember the first and last names of jocs
: > who picked on the nerds. I remember as an artist at that school
: > how I hated seeing people treat each other that way.
: >
: > I can remember how happy I was that my family valued creativity
: > enough to let me mature in mine as a place to escape and develop
: > on my own. I can remember that they allowed me to use the arts to
: > become an individual that valued my own differences and used
: > them as strengths to value other differences and strenghts for me
: > to succeed. I remember thinking how sorry I felt for the kids whos
: > parents did not allow the arts or did not value the arts they seemed
: > to have been missing so much.
: >
: > Today, I wonder if all those kids at Columbine High might have
: > developed better images of themselves and their peers had they
: > been cultivated more each in their own creativity and freedom of
: > expression through the arts? I wonder had they had more
: > opportunities in the arts in their early years that they might have
: > understood differences of others and learned to be more tolerant of
: > those differences? I wonder had they had more exposure to the arts
: > and various dimensions of differences might they still be alive
: > today?
: >
: > Artists know how understanding artwork adds to understanding
: > self. Artists know that through understanding you learn to accept
: > cultural differences by being different yourself. Artists learn that by
: > being different you are ok and you learn to tolerate more in
: > yourselves and in others. Artists learn all this through the arts and
: > artists bring much to the world through diverse thought and
: > questioning and sharing of ideas. All the things those parents at
: > columbine wish now that they could have shared with their kids to
: > understand what was really going on behind that tradgey but it is
: > now to late to ask.
: >
: > The columbine blossom is now added to the 'Flower Power' series.
: > That series of paintings was concieved from a poetic dimension of
: > life which included personal and global tradgies, leadership,
: > moments, color, love and a positive wish for the future.
: >
: > I think we would all agree that is what 'Flower Power' is about. I
: > think we would all agree that the columbine belongs in that flower
: > series as a symboic reminder that we all need to address the
: > symbolism of the flower power meanings through the arts. I think
: > we all need to pray that it is not to late to reach a generation of
: > kids. I think we need to recognize that the arts can teach the kids
: > that peace, love and creativity are important values that can be
: > cultivated through differences and revered in ourselves and others
: > throught the arts and we can teach them through the arts that care
: > matters.
: >
: > Mattison Fitzgerald
: > Artist
: > http://www.rhinodevcom/M
: > matt...@att.net

[Karen O'Mara]

Mattison wrote:

>
> : >
> : > Today, I wonder if all those kids at Columbine High might have
> : > developed better images of themselves and their peers had they
> : > been cultivated more each in their own creativity and freedom of
> : > expression through the arts? I wonder had they had more
> : > opportunities in the arts in their early years that they might have
> : > understood differences of others and learned to be more tolerant of
> : > those differences? I wonder had they had more exposure to the arts
> : > and various dimensions of differences might they still be alive
> : > today?

I think they did consider themselves artists. They expressed themselves through
visual art, and it has been published and broadcast thoughout the country.
Their art was film, graphics, video, etc... and it all, in retrospect of
course, is viewed as a preamble to their violence. At the time, I imagine it
was viewed as managing inner conflicts, learning tolerance, a path of
understanding, or any other bs...

Karen