Hadih! On January 16th, 2023, we as a cohort were fortunate enough to be given a tour of the art exhibition at Two Rivers Art Gallery.

When we arrived we were greeted by the wonderful Sophia. Sophia then gave a beautiful land acknowledgment and continued to talk about the importance of land acknowledgements, which I feel is not talked about enough, especially in younger grades. I often see many land acknowledgements but no explanation for why we are acknowledging the land. I very much appreciated and valued the experience that Sophia provided for us. In my blog post, I am going to talk about what I took away from the tour, the art, and the conversations.

 While this exhibition addresses themes of strife, displacement and despair, it reverberates with a love of culture and community through which is found strength, the power to overcome adversity, and above all Hope.

Two Rivers Gallery

The exhibition that was displayed was:

أَمَلَ ਉਮੀਦ امید आशा Hope

 This collection of work is by South Asian artists: Sara Khan, Keerat Kaur, Farheen Haq, Aman Aheer, Sunroop Kaur, Mustaali Raj & Minahil Bukhar

This painting above completely encaptivated me. The details, the realism, and the emotions, all spoke to me and I genuinely could spend hours looking at this painting and unpacking things. So here is what I noticed, the details in the painting are done with such gentle, steady hands and with so much care. The snake plant, the clasp on the embroidery circle, the details with the sheer shall over top of the dress, the aging in the face and hair. Lastly, I noticed their hands, although they are holding a needle and doing some very delicate work, the hards are worn, with some scars. It shows how much life this Mother has lived and to me, I feel that they are gentle, kind, hardworking, and caring. They have faced hardships and challenges but I feel as though they have carried themselves through such hardships and challenges with grace and dignity.

Throughout the entire exhibit, there was a theme of the colour blue. Although the remainder of my photos doesn’t show that. Blue generally signifies as sad, crying, rain, etc. But in this exhibition, I felt extremely calm, flowing like a river, blue sky, all the positives of the colour blue. I think what was so powerful, is that the emotion, intention, and care challenged and changed the perspective of a common thought about the colour blue.

This exhibit forced me to think and listen about other people’s hardships in terms of racism, harassment, trauma, abuse, etc. I feel fortunate that I was able to listen to other’s stories and how these pieces made them feel. This particular piece felt like a journey to me. I started in one spot and followed along throughout each individual drawing with each turn, nook, and shift I thought about pivotal moments in my life. Something I found interesting when it was a darker gradient the pivotal moment’s I thought of were more depressing moments in my life and the lighter gradient made me think of happier pivotal moments.

Lastly, there was the following piece that I felt spoke to me. This piece in particular was the centre of the room but I feel that even if it wasn’t set up in the centre, it would still be a main eye-drawing piece in the exhibit. Again, the artist incorporated blue in this piece. This is where the feeling of flow, calmness, and sacredness stood out to me most. The repetition of the words, the exactness of each word and the pattern displayed throughout the piece reminded me that I am where I need to be, everything happens for a reason and to let life happen while living it. I don’t know what it says and oddly, I am okay with it. (I say oddly because I am the kind of person that wants/needs to know all the details to understand and comprehend). But I am okay with not knowing what it means, I accept my ignorance because I don’t think I need to or am meant to know the meaning. It is sacred, if they wanted me to know the definition or meaning they would have presented it. This piece showed me the true meaning of open-mindedness, acceptance of ignorance, and just letting myself emotionally, spiritually, and mentally feel the piece. Sometimes we need to let go of things, look past titles, to understand the meaning and true intent.

Thank you Sophia at Two Rivers Art Gallery for your expertise, kindness, hospitality, and openness in sharing your stories and thoughts while giving us a tour.

If you made it to here, I want to thank you for reading this blog. I understand it wasn’t my normal joking and happy blog. This is a reflection of my experience at Two Rivers Art Gallery. I think this is transferable to teaching, we need to listen to students. True intentional listening, when they are telling a story ask “Why are they telling a story?” “Are they seeking connection? Do they want to be heard? Do they often feel ignored?” Creating a relationship with our students and truly understanding them is how we set them up for success. Teaching the WHOLE child is setting them up for success to be the best active learners that they can be, that is why I am here. That is why I want to be a teacher. I want to encourage the kids who don’t get encouraged, I want to support the kids who don’t get support. I want to be that person I needed in my education journey. I believe in every single child regardless of disabilities, home life, challenges, ethnicity, gender, or anything.

So, thank you, I appreciate you and I see you.