Senor Loco and his 100 Friends
Hello, bloggers!
(Text extracted from Matt Lamb Blog)
Two of my grandsons, Matt and Joey, go to Oak Prairie Junior High School in Homer Glen, Illinois. My granddaughter Rose graduated from there five years ago. It’s a great facility that we’ve been working with over the last couple of years on different projects.
Recently I was invited to look at the school in terms of all of its art and activities and its ingenious, far-thinking, risk-taking staff. They asked about getting everyone together to paint a wall leading into their main assembly area, which is also the gym, a huge, blank, open space.
They had a special day where the students come for half a day and go into different classes to explore different activities. So on this day, last Friday, I suggested we paint the wall with a message of peace as it’s viewed by the students.
That then mutated into a large canvas that could be painted and attached to the wall. That in turn had a metamorphosis into two large canvases, one that could stay there and the other that could travel and be an outreach to the whole community.
We divided the 100 young people into sections. One would name the
group; one would be the historians who would keep track; one would be the scribes; and the other would be the architects who would figure out the logistics.
We had a number of very involved faculty members, whom I called the referees. When the students couldn’t come to a conclusion about something, the referees would work out a compromise, which would lead to a sense of the integration of the whole structure of the school, both the student body and the administration.
After numerous discussions, a naming committee came up with the name for our new group: “Lamb (Señor Loco) and 100 Amigos for Peace,” which I loved, because you have to be crazy to work for peace.
The whole project was about symbolism and the use of everybody’s talent and everyday objects, so we decided that instead of getting a pristine piece of canvas, we would go to the hardware store and buy two drop cloths, 15 feet by 12 feet, which became our canvases.
We had a system set up in a large art room, where we put together 8 tables and laid the canvas on top so it could be worked simultaneously on all 4 sides.
Then we divided the classes up again into 4 different groups. Group 1 did the center of the canvas. Then, when they got through, we put other tables up where the canvases laid over the side and onto the floor. The next group then came in, so the whole canvas had the manifestation of the other groups.
We had a vote as to which way it should hang—rightside-up, upside-down, or sideways. There were great images on it, there were abstract sections, there were peace signs and flowers and figures, which we interpreted and had photographed and videotaped.
We did the same thing with the second piece, and at one point we actually folded it in on top of itself, so that it was almost like an ink blotter, with one set of images giving and taking from the other.
My interpretation was that peace has many different ways of being perceived. You can look at it one way and it makes all the sense in the world, and look at it another way and it makes no sense whatsoever.
Peace is not pretty. Peace is messy. Peace may be the absence of something more than the presence of anything.
One thing I know for sure is that peace is not the white dove flying through the air. It’s more like a big flock of birds squawking and carrying on!
Peace is not the same for everybody. It’s a very elusive entity. Peace may not be anything at all, other than the absence of war.
It’s about acceptance and tolerance of things we don’t like, but we’re not going to beat people up or kill over them. We’re not going to do the things we don’t approve of, but we’re going to know that other people are doing those things. We might debate but we won’t fight.
Whatever happened during our time of discussion and creation was dictated by the historians and recorded by the scribes in a permanent record. I told the young people, “This is going to follow you for the rest of your lives.”
Next to the canvases will be the students’ names. Each of them will write an essay about their experience, and a quote will be taken out of each one and displayed. When they come back to the school decades from now with their grandchildren, they’ll say, “This is what I did when I was your age.”
The thing I like the most about this project is that it’s a record right now of the affirmation of 100 people coming together into a unifiied project and presenting it to the world: “This is who we are: We’re all different but we’re all the same. We don’t all think alike, but we can still come up with one big statement that says: This is us, like it or lump it!”
Every race, creed, religion, and age range got involved, including the superintendant, the principal, secretaries, volunteers, maintenance staff—everybody got involved in this!
It was a community effort, and it can be cloned, modified, and repeated in any way, shape, or form by other communities around the country and the world and be put forth as a manifesto of our commitment to band together and fight for peace.
It’s a very exciting development that’s driven by the students, not me. It’s
related to, but different from, the Lamb Umbrellas for Peace. The umbrella is an individual statement, whereas this is the statement of a community. The umbrella says, “This is who I am,” whereas this says, “This is who we are.” Both of the programs are great outreaches.
So thank you to everyone at Oak Prairie Junior High for helping with this great new manifestation of peace, tolerance, understanding, hope, and love.
Signed,
Matt Lamb, a.k.a. “Señor Loco!”
NEW: Matt has donated 5 original water colors to Oak Prairie Junior High in Homer Glen, IL. as a part of his Senor Loco and Amigos program. Each year a student who does outstandingly well in bring good and nice will receive a painting from the school. The school will decide who and when the student receives this painting.
WC736.2005 |
WC893.2005 |
WC908.2005 |
WC915.2005 |
WC917.2005 |
Photos of Senor Loco in Oak Prairie School
