Pablo Picasso once said “Every child is an artist.” Watching school kids paint on the wall of a temple in Laxmanbagh, it became evident that a little bit of paint, brush and an imagination is all that is needed for children.
Organized by the film club Moving Images, children from local schools painted murals along the outer wall of the 400-year-old Pittie temple. Children from the Nagarjuna High School, Safrani High School as well as AIDS-afflicted kids from the Desire Society and Spurthivision Care Society took part.
Supervising the young artists was Shanu Lahiri, a renowned painter and educator from Kolkata. She started the Love Calcutta Project in 1984, about which she says, “I noticed graffiti on walls around Kolkata saying ‘Kill so and so’, ‘Take the blood of so and so’. Children were walking by such walls and I wondered the impact such graffiti might have on impressionable minds. So, I rounded up a few of my art students and we began painting over the graffiti,” says Lahiri. She adds, “The idea was to cleanse and beautify the city.”
Aparajita Sinha, director of Moving Images said, “We organised this event because we wanted children to feel a sense of belonging to their city.”
The children were all excited and enjoyed the experience. “I wish I could do this everyday. It is much more fun than painting on paper,” said P Sairachana, a Standard III student.