November 26, 2024
Painting our future: Can’t have art without the heart
Sacramento News & Review
By: Donna Apidone
Heart is the basis of art. Young people may feel an urge to create, but they count on parents and teachers to paint a path to success. To some adults, that means respecting and encouraging creativity. To others, it means raising money to augment school arts programs.
Nida Akhtar’s art is a direct result of her experience as a parent. She was inspired to paint after her fourth child died six days after birth. The activity of painting offered therapy she hadn’t anticipated. “Because of her, I am doing this,” Akhtar said. “She’s with me whenever I am in my painting room.” Akhtar’s first foray into art education consisted of online videos as she mourned. In the last few years, she has taken classes at Sacramento State while pursuing a degree in business. She exhibits at the Atrium in Old Sacramento. Now Akhtar’s youngest child has expressed an interest in painting, and with a 9-year-old the lessons are bigger than the canvas. “Art gives them connection to themselves. I tell her, ‘You need to be patient. You can’t be mad at the paint,’” Akhtar said. “The times that we’re in — there’s so much noise outside. Whenever we bring ourselves into our hearts, that is the only way to bring peace.”
Marie “Rie” Thomas is a teaching assistant at a Montessori school in Elk Grove. As a graphic designer who trained at the Art Institute of California San Francisco, who also exhibits her art at galleries in the region, she has a lot to offer her middle grade students. “Art opens their minds a little more to see things in different views,” Thomas said. “It also builds up self-esteem for kids.” She said she is fortunate to work with a school with resources. Montessori has “a really great parent community that donates supplies,” Thomas said. She often augments the donated supplies with her own items: “Teachers are always being creative.” Thomas remembers the creative environment of her youth. She credits her grandfather, who bought her first sketch book, and her middle school teacher who made the connection between books, art and imagination. She said there is documentation of her earliest attempt at art. As a small child, she scribbled with a pen in the baby book her family treasured. Next to her work, her mother wrote “Marie’s first drawing.”