“All children are artists,” Pablo Picasso once said. “The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
Keeping that inner artist alive is the idea behind the “Reflections Showcase” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla.
The project started in May 2023 for adults 55 and older to express themselves through various forms of artistic creation in six series of eight classes each. The result is now hanging on the walls of MCASD in a special exhibit that runs through Sunday, Aug. 25.
According to Kelley Katan, who led most of the classes, 132 people participated in the program using a wide variety of materials for different styles of artwork — from fiber arts to portraiture to 3-D and digital.
The idea to display the art came later.
“We had some interest from the participants when they saw some high school students’ work on display,” Katan said. “They started asking, ‘Is there an opportunity for us to put our work up?’ We were able to arrange it and make it happen.”
Anyone who took the art classes and created work could submit up to three pieces for the exhibit.
“I was very surprised at how much creativity we had walk through the door. We had folks who had a lot of art experience but also those who’d never done art before,” Katan said. “I found that we got creative energy from all those people. I like the excitement that people get when they are surprised at what they’re able to produce. Some come in with uncertainty of what the class is going to be and what they can achieve. So when they are proud of themselves in what they’ve completed, that’s really exciting for me.”
Marian Harper took classes in portraiture, digital art, and textiles and weaving.
“They were all so different, so that’s what I really liked,” Harper said. “I haven’t done much with contemporary art. Traditional art was more what I liked to see. So this was kind of a stretch, to look at contemporary art and then create our own pieces. Kelley was really good at giving us projects that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of doing.”
Harper’s career was in the health care field, which she described as “very logical, linear and mathematical,” and she had no formal art background. Her favorite class was one in which participants used spices and fruit to create paints and dyes.
“We used cinnamon and different spices as watercolors and smashed blueberries and painted it,” she said. “That was kind of fun, because who would think of using spices for your art?”
Helen Kaufmann said her favorite class was in digital art, where students went out and took photos, then uploaded them into a program called Procreate to enhance and edit them.
She said she surprised herself with her artistic ability. She took a picture of an electrical equipment box and decided to “do weird stuff rather than the traditional flowers and sculptures,” she said. “I couldn’t get it to crop properly, so I played with it and turned it into fire.”
Same with her photo of a seagull. “I thought, ‘How about a little graffiti for La Jolla? La Jolla needs some graffiti.’”
So she added graffiti to the wall where the seagull was perched.
Kaufmann said she was surprised by how impressive all the artwork looks hung on the museum walls.
“Presentation matters,” she said. “I like the way they pulled all the different pieces together to make them cohesive and interesting.”
Margaret Richardson was hooked on the “Reflections” program from the start and took the whole year of classes. One of her favorites was the painting class.
“It was fun using my imagination and stretching myself,” Richardson said. “I was never exposed much to art at all. There’s quite a lot in me that I didn’t know was there. It makes me happy to create something and see a finished product.
“I also enjoyed being with other people and meeting them. We’re all from different walks of life and we all had fun together. … We don’t make time for fun. Not enough, anyway.”
The Museum of Contemporary Art is at 700 Prospect St. A closing-weekend reception for the “Reflections Showcase” is scheduled for 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 23, with many of the artists in attendance.
To find out more about the museum, visit mcasd.org. ♦
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