Monthly Archives: July 2015

Talking Suitcases are a terrific prompt for writing. They offer a natural focus on something that people care about—and have had the chance to reflect on quietly as they worked to give it shape as a 3-D scene or object.

Working with 4 groups of youth (5-14 yrs) and teens (15-19 yrs) in two sites in the Stillwater area, I asked the young artists to talk and write about their work for display in the upcoming arts festival.

Some wrote quickly, others took their time and went deeper. Some wrote directly, and others, I recorded in an interview, then wrote down what they said. Everyone was eager to tell about what they had made. In a classroom situation, we could have easily written much more.

Here are some of the results:

Youth:

Sarah
Why I made this is because I love cats. They are my life. I want them by me all the time when I sleep, when I watch TV.  I love them. Go cats!

Aiyana
I made a science box. It has all sorts of things with science.

There is an arrow pointing to science cause there’s book about science so you can read about it and there’s some chemicals and another book and a table and that’s me doing chemicals…It’s me in the future when I grow up; I’m going to be a scientist.

Ariah
I made a box dedicated to what’s my favorite thing to do in the summer.  I love water parks and that’s what I always do every summer.  So I thought I would do one about water parks.  Inside my box, you can see there’s a sky and the sand is right at the bottom.  People come and splash into the water.  I went on a water slide, on the family ride with my family, only once by myself – I went backwards and forwards and it was fun.

Teens:

Paloma
Mirror Box—People see what they want to see not a whole person – inside things that most people don’t care to see—don’t take the time. I wish people would see things like I could be a leader. I wish to be free from all the stereotypes and society’s rules. Inside I’m beautiful…amazing…maybe.

Iridiana
“The Road to Happiness”  A car with two figures. My daughter and I, riding this car to happiness. I want to be with my daughter all the time. Share everything with her. Bumpy, smooth, and curvy roads.  Together we will be happy and will never give up!

Jesus
Hi everybody, my name is Jesus and this is my talking suitcase. Inside is me—I’m happy because I’m proud of myself.  In one of the boxes, it shows that I love going shopping and that I love music. But inside the box it shows that even though I could be feeling dark inside there’s something shining in there. In my white box, it shows that my dream for the future is going to Paris with my friend. And this is me.

The week of June 15, I had a treat–I took an experimental drawing workshop at MCAD.  So fun!  We started with a sketchbook; but not your old familiar pencil-drawings-only one…no!  This one could be anything–all kinds of media, and even sticking things in there that you pick up on your walks.

I started with birch leaves and trees, but soon was turning the shapes into scarlet petals,

then cut-outs of birch trunks, then writing my dreams in there, adding pages, carrying through the lines with thread…

…and by the time we went to Silverwood Park the next day, I had a bunch of pages already.  At the park, we drew some blind contours, then tried to draw the feeling of textures of the grass and leaves. Next I drew damselflies on the water, then the water and weeds around them, and then…bam!

I was leaning over the bridge to look at a turtle stuck in the surface green glop when I discovered how fabulous the water itself was. (Shannon Brunette said it looked kind of dreamy) On the surface was reflected the blue sky and clouds, and then there were the gloppy green surface weeds that looked like thickened cloud clusters, and then beneath the surface the murky dark with shadows of fish and seaweeds.

All the layers at once:

I took some photos and began drawing the cloudy green clusters, then the strings and tangles of stuff on the surface, and painting the colors and their interactions.

Next step: make a drawing on something 3-D, so I chose a suitcase, of course–a little red one.  What I did for the next day or two was interpret the layers of Silver Lake–the luminous sky reflections, the clouds of greenish glop and seaweeds, and the darker mysterious depths in papers, paint, drawing, fabrics, and thread, inside and outside the suitcase.

I used my sketchbook to help me. I had a great conversation with my tablemate Bethany who was working in a stricter minimalist mode–in black and white rectangles and lines.  I decided to add our conversation right into the suitcase–as a grid of black string that represents her structured approach. I like how the grid kind of holds the looseness in place, and marks out a clearer view of surface and depth.

Silver Lake Suitcase!  by Susan Armington

Teaching ELL at the University of Minnesota Today I found some photos from a Talking Suitcases project I taught at the University of Minnesota’s summer English program 5 years ago. I’ve probably taught a couple hundred more students since then, but I can still remember a lot of the stories these students told with their Talking Suitcases objects. For instance, a Japanese student shared her dream to work with the elderly so they wouldn’t be forced to stay inside their homes because of disability or health limitations, but could enjoy life outdoors in nature too. Here is the object she made:

Ki-Hoon explained a process for hiring people that involved a questionnaire and interviews at different levels:

Eddy told us about the advantages of some technical innovation:

David was able to demonstrate, not just describe, the action of the jets he works with. It focused our attention and made his talk vivid:

These are presentations that I’d never remember without these prompts–it’s amazing how the 3-D visual object can really help keep the story alive in your mind. Another thing I remember from that class–we took a field trip to Washburn High’s summer school and my students presented some Talking Suitcases objects. Now these were two VERY different populations interacting! My university students were very apprehensive; sure that American H.S. students would be rude and make fun of them. But as you can see in this photo, when they told their stories and shared their objects the students were actually pretty interested. Though it was challenging, they managed to get some real interaction going and give pleasure too. The Talking Suitcases object gave structure to the interaction and added some fun too.