Jonna, age 3, at the Fresno zoo.
Jonna was 3 years old when I first met her. I was a guest in her grandmother's home in a farming community near Fresno, California and Jonna was spending the day there. She was initially very shy, but became quite talkative as she got used to my presence. We spent several hours at the Fresno Zoo visiting the animals. Jonna has the deep brown eyes and dark curly hair that belies her Mexican-American heritage. She had all of the charm of a typical 3-year-old girl. I was able to visit her grandmother's home several times over a 2 year period. Jonna is now 5 years old and is as petite as she was when I first met her. She was, and is, a bundle of energy. She is now occupied with her new little brother, Mateo, who she waited excitedly for to be born this last year. One of the unexpected surprises I had while getting to know Jonna is that she is a very creative artist. She has been drawing and painting for over two years. She also shapes things in clay. She has been studying dance this past year as well.
Vicki Filgas directing dancers at the 12th Annual Rebozo Festival in Fresno, California.
Jonna's grandmother is Vicki Filgas. Vicki taught dance, including forms of Mexican dance, in the town of Selma, California for many years until retiring a few years ago. She taught many of the people who have become leaders in her community, males and females alike, and she is well-known and respected as a supporter of the arts in their many forms. She has been very active with Arte Americas and with many other art projects, including helping arrange the painting of mural depicting the history of the town of Selma and the surrounding countryside. I met her when traveling in Thailand and found her so engaging and fun that I accepted an invitation to visit with her and her friend, Ernie Palomino the first time she made the offer.
Vicki has built a hacienda with a red barrel tiled roof overlooking farm fields in the fertile Central Valley near Fresno. She has recently removed nearly all of the grape vines that produced raisins for Sunkist and replaced them with pomegranates and walnut trees. Her front door is a sunburst design that was hand-crafted in Mexico and the floors are red tile. She has art on display everywhere, including a number of Ernie Palomino's larger canvasses. Vicki is an excellent cook in addition to be a very pleasant and accommodating hostess. I have been fortunate to have been a guest at her home on several occasions and her authentic Mexican recipes have been awesome. Her home is full of open, sunlight-filled space and includes a second story porch overlooking her pomegranate orchard and the farming country as far as the Sierra Mountains. Sitting on that porch and talking with friends into the twilight while enjoying glasses of wine, feeling the cooling air and looking at the sun fading on the mountains is an especially enchanting experience.
Part of joy of getting to spend time in Vicki's home has been watching her interacting with Jonna. Vicki is a patient, loving and interested grandmother. She teaches naturally and she encourages Jonna to explore new and interesting things. When Jonna began to show an interest in painting with watercolors her grandfather bought her a nice paint set with an easel that Jonna was using nearly every day. I watched Jonna painting one afternoon and saw that she was very intent in what she was doing. Each stroke and each color she selected seemed studied rather than random. It was clear to me that she had particular ideas in mind with each picture. She explored with colors, shapes and sizes, but, when asked what she had painted, she nearly always could tell you what she had in mind and you could see how she was representing it.
Jonna's paintings in my home.
These are four of Jonna's art works. The line drawing in the bottom center, which she calls "Man With Idea," was done when she was four. The others were when she was three. I found them delightful, artistic and openly expressive. She calls the one on the right "Woman and Man In Their Kissing Place." The larger figure on the right is the woman, the smaller middle figure is the man and the far left and bottom (brownish) areas are the "kissing place." . The other two (left, top and bottom) are unnamed, but show a very imaginative and deft use of color and space. I found them charming and a wonderful reminder of the freedom and imagination of a child's developing mind. I enjoyed framing them and display them proudly in my home.
Ernie Palomino, who I talked about in in my last blog entry, has a web site for his work. He, Vicki and I were sitting around her dinner table one evening after eating one of Vicki's Mexican meals and looking at some of Jonna's recent paintings. I wondered if there would be a place on his site where Ernie could show some of Jonna's work. As we talked, the idea came up of having an actual art show for her paintings. Everyone thought that was a cool idea and Vicki got to work on it and made it happen.
Vicki picked out some of her more colorful and expressive paintings and Ernie arranged for larger prints of them, and the show was on. My contribution was the following poem:
JONNA
She pushes back the brown curly hair
that falls across her face.
It stays behind her ears only for a moment
before cascading forward again.
She sits looking intently at the easel
in front of her.
Her soft brown eyes become
tightly focused
and her attention seems to
shift inward.
Now her brush touches the paint and,
on this painting
on this day,
her strokes are bold and definite.
She starts with black and deep, deep blue
using both brush and fingers.
The message is clear:
I am here
I am powerful.
You must yield to me.
Later strokes become more tentative
and experimental,
then more deliberate.
A stroke of bright red just there, some yellow
A streak of green.
She explores the space of the canvas with
a studied eye
seeking a sense of completion.
And then she is finished.
When she is asked later
what she painted, her response is:
"I painted that."
Her inspirations are many and varied.
With innocence, beauty
and simplicity
she paints her visions.
She sees a woman and a man
in their kissing place
and a pig eating a frog.
Blowing seeds float above
a surreal landscape.
Or perhaps they are stars
in an alien sky.
She approaches painting with
the joyfulness of youth.
She learns something new with each stroke.
She is having fun.
And what will be said of this
young girl's art?
Will it be said that it is
a doorway into a special future?
Is it a window that
lets images out
while illuminating what is within?
There may be a day when those
are important questions
for her to ask herself.
But not now, not now.
She is too busy finding herself
in the world
and the world in herself.
She is doing well.
Let's not disturb her.
(Jim Morgan--April 11, 2011)
Jonna turned five this last December. She is now studying dance and has been making things from clay. I have steadily tried to give her gifts that will influence her to become acquainted with the University of Florida were I am still an Emeritus Professor of Psychology. For this last visit I gave her the smallest girl's T-shirt I could find. She is so petite that she could wear it as a nightshirt. She has also always carefully selected paintings that she wanted me to have. The last gifts she gave me, though, included a tiny clay angel that I display on my mantel It is hardly an inch high and is truly the "Littlest Angel" I have ever seen and certainly the most charming.
Although I truly believe that Jonna is especially talented, I also believe that every child has the capability for exploring and expressing their inner feelings and their wonder of the world through the world of the arts. Doing so allows them to experiment with trying to express themselves, find boundaries, seek new solutions and find satisfaction in their accomplishments. Not every child has a adult in their life like Vicki, who has the insight and patience to help a child explore the world in this way...and that is a shame. However, sometimes all that is needed is an appreciation of the wonderful imagination of a child's mind.