Mama SRL

The story of the rainbow is a memory from my childhood aroused by activities with the child. F was the family friend who always came over to tell jokes or stories about fishing, hunting and cooking. He always knew how to get us out of tense moments and he always managed to impress me with his desire for life and the way he lived every day. Whether they were all playing adult card games, sitting on stories and being noisy, or simply cooking and competing in prepared meals, he was always on top and told funny stories even for us, the little ones. And the story of the rainbow is about a drawing in which he showed me what the rainbow actually means and how you technically make such a representation starting from the mixture of colors. And I had only discovered the rainbow this year while enjoying a nice spring sprinkle.

In my memory it was actually a topic given by the teacher at school and which I theoretically understood, but which my parents considered too complex for my understanding. Of course, my family always referred to famous artists forgetting that it was a school theme, but I appreciated the involvement because they always wanted me to keep my standards high in everything I do. At the risk of overcoming the feeling of small and useless, establishing values is important. That’s how I realized how many notions I was missing from the class presentation. The inability of the teacher to capture our attention during the drawing class is an unnecessary topic to address in this memory. In terms of the rainbow, we should have let ourselves experience the mixture of colors and try to get different shades and even extraordinary shapes. ROYGBIP includes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and purple. These are the colors and I had the theme to build a rainbow with them. The lady, the wife of a famous actor, defined the colors and the shape that the rainbow should have, a curved line. I was in sixth grade and I thought I understood the task very well, even though I had never noticed a rainbow. I didn’t limit myself to using my imagination, but somehow we all ended up making some parallel curved lines. Well, my parents’ mistake was that they never had time to show me a rainbow. And because I aroused this memory, I admit once again that I am glad to be able to show my child everything I can from the surrounding world: rainbow, moon, sun, planes, clouds, stars, rain, snow, falling leaves from trees, etc. (Just this morning we watched together as the moon peeked after the clouds and the strong wind blew the clouds from time to time to rediscover its beauty, then they peeped back in. I patiently watched my son watch the impressive spectacle.) At the drawing class, no one showed us through practice how to obtain the respective colors. My parents theoretically knew about color mixing and tried to help me get the colors, but it’s not that simple to make a fine difference between indigo and purple. In fact, you don’t notice them so well in nature either.

The emotion of this memory started from a perfect green obtained by my son by mistake when he soaked the blue tainted brush in the yellow colour. The child was extremely excited and surprised by the result. Then I had to explain to him that this is what happens when you mix colors. And I’m glad that he discovers from an early age what effects the combination of basic colors has and that at school I won’t have to open his „box” to let him discover the rainbow.

Okay, and going back to the rainbow story, at the request of my parents, the big F came and started to show me what a rainbow means. I thought he would quickly draw me this rainbow represented by 7 parallel curved lines and different colors. But no, he tactfully took the watercolors, started mixing them, created some shades on a tile, and I was just fascinated by what he was doing. He had peace, patience and he did everything carefully. He wasn’t in a hurry at all, he didn’t have the pressure of failure, he knew what he was looking for in those colors. And so I sat quietly and watched closely what he was doing. I wouldn’t have had that patience. I’m still looking for patience in this meticulous matters. He sat there and analyzed and added red, yellow, blue and made circles on the tiles, then softened the brush on the ceramic doodle, then took a sheet of paper from the drawing block and tried the color effects. It was nothing special, but the passion with which he brushed the paper released a positive energy. And then he went to the actual sheet and quickly made the 7 curved lines on paper and ready. What? So simple? So quiet and managed so perfectly? I don’t have that painting anymore, but I wish I had kept it. I honestly realize now how important such memories are. In my attempt to define myself as a parent, I gather all my knowledge or I try to remind myself of various notions in order to teach the little one more and more.

If I were to represent a rainbow now, I would certainly not resort to a curved shape. There are so many representations that we can try in our painting that it would be quite common to reproduce the original shape from nature. We can bring something original in the representation. Of course that’s my stubbornness to be different. But the little one must learn not to be limited to an imitation of nature or what he sees around him. I call it dreaming and daring to push boundaries. Yes, the Greeks overcame their condition once they overcame the walls of their city. A professor told me that at the university and he would always prove us that we are not well prepared for being an art critic, but still he made an effort in every course to tell us about the history of art. And historical facts like that make me try to give the little one the freedom to dream and try everything he wants. Until he reached this mixture, he wiped his fingers dirty with paint on the sweatshirt he was wearing. He did it so naturally that I felt very calm to let him do it. I really want him not to feel constrained by stupid rules related to „cleanliness”. There is no need to keep the child spotless. He lives a normal life. He knows that if he gets dirty, he washes himself, and the fun continues. And yes, he knows how to sit on the street if he feels the need to do so. Yesterday he did this on the wet asphalt. The clothes went into the wash basket when I got home, but the child was happy with the freedom he had outside. This means to grow freely: to dare to overcome barriers. I don’t know if he will be an artist or not, but I definitely have to let him develop all his desires. Oh, and since I have the little one, I write lightly with my left hand. I recently signed with it and it didn’t go wrong. That’s because I’m ambidextrous and I was forced to write with my right hand, but only now I have this freedom of mind.

Today’s lesson based on memories is to let the little ones feel what it means to mix things up, they will draw the necessary conclusions on their own and they will organize their world according to their own vision. The story of the rainbow is about color, shades and about life itself.