“The Apparition” Painting

Joan Marie Kelly has been living in Singapore since 2005. Presently, holds a faculty position at Nanyang Technological University also in Singapore. Her creative research investigates the status of migrant workers. The act of painting is an encounter with marginalized communities. These communities range from foreign workers, and maids in locations such as Kolkata, Singapore and Shenzhen. Following my BFA, without realizing it I started an art studio for disabled adults at Keswick Multi-Care Center in Baltimore. I began gathering the adults in wheel chairs in a hallway distributing clay, while teaching hand-building techniques. The clients and I made explorations of how to manipulate materials with their bodies. A lot depended on how open they were to exploring the use of their body in new ways. There was a young man Robert, with cerebral palsy who was very angry. He communicated with a keyboard and banged with one protruding knuckle, words of anger. Alone and away from the group I taught him how to hold one of the clay tools that cut away clay. I slipped it in between a couple of frozen still fingers. Manned with this tool he came to work the clay among the group. I watched people who were identified by their disability begin to sit up in their chair as they made art and discovered a new identity of an artist. I looked at myself as their artistic tool. The decision making of the design, construction, subject and content of the work defines the author of the artwork. I was able to get the kids from the local homeless shelter to work one-on-one with the adults by feeding them a big lunch. It was some of the most rewarding work I ever did. May 2005 I saw a new Art school in Singapore on the web. This was the first Art degree program in Singapore. After looking at the curriculum, I was shocked to see there was no program for the study of drawing. I don't usually write my senators but I wrote the university about my views on the importance of drawing as the basis of all visual communication. Two months later Nanyang Technological University returned a letter suggesting for me to apply for a position teaching Drawing. I have been teaching painting and drawing in Singapore at Nanyang Technological University School of Art Design and Media for 8 months of the year for the past 8 years. My opportunity to work with this type of contract for NTU will expire July 2014.