The fourth session working with the refugee group felt the most chaotic; usually it happens the other way round! As the weeks tick by the group settles into it. I think because of the drop-in nature of the centre meant lots of new people turned up on this session and because we couldn`t speak each others language we resorted to basic communication, so it felt to me as though the meaning was lost.
The pattern has tended to be a core group, who still find it very difficult to follow the workshop, then the people who drop-in and seem to have no grasp or perhaps no desire to know what the project is about and use the materials doing their own thing. Despite my feelings, the session was full of people engaging in creativity. Perhaps under the circumstances this is all that matters? Maybe the meaning can come later? Having access to inks, pens, paints and the freedom to use them in anyway you want to can have enormous therapeutic benefits, so perhaps to discount this is to really under play the power of creativity and also the power to choose.
I intend to focus on making meaning from the sessions that people dropped into, by making sure their work is part of the final design. With only one more week to go I`ve planned to use the shells as inspiration and create simple stamps.