Airmailed art Airmailed art (June 04, 2004)

Multicultural works on display at CSMA

By Julie O'Shea

Itayi, an 11-year-old from Zimbabwe, drew the river Zambezi. "It is a very important river because it gives water and fish," the artist wrote on a piece of paper accompanying the artwork.

Nine-year-old Joseph from France explained that the photograph of his running stream lets "us hear the light whistle of pure air we breathe."

And the picture of a girl standing on rocks near a river bank was done by Maria, 8, of Estonia.

These pieces along with many others hang on the back wall of the Springer Elementary School multipurpose room. The collection is part of Paintbrush Diplomacy, a program dedicated to connecting children around the world through art and words. This year, students in Mountain View exchanged artwork with children from Russia, China, Poland, Japan, the Czech Republic, and Africa among other places in the world.

Pieces like Itayi's and Joseph's will be on display at the Community School of Music and Art (CSMA) at 230 San Antonio Circle starting June 4 through July 31. The exhibit will showcase artwork from Springer and Huff Elementary School students, in addition to those from abroad. The theme for 2004 was water and its importance.

"I look at some of the pictures, and it's cool to see what other countries are drawing," said Reyna Hulett, a fourth-grader at Springer. "It's really cool to see that even though they're from other countries, they still do art like we do. They are not that different."

This is exactly the sort of impact Char Pribuss hoped Paintbrush Diplomacy would have on children when she started the program 30 years ago.

An artist and an avid traveler, Pribuss of San Mateo and her husband Rudy, a retired engineer, would travel with a suitcase packed with children's art. Pribuss would visit schools in each country she vacationed in and persuaded the children there to let her take their artwork back home to share with American children. In exchange, she'd give them some of the artwork she had in her suitcase. The couple visited 40 countries over 30 years.

"We are really about connecting the children with the universal language of art," said Louise Valeur, who is getting the art ready for the two-month exhibit at CSMA. "The artwork is almost like a time capsule, showing the world through children's eyes."

Not to mention that Paintbrush is just plain fun.

"I just like the feel of drawing stuff. It was fun to do," said Rebecca Rempel, a fourth-grader at Springer. Of the pieces hanging in her school's multipurpose room, Rebecca said: "I like how they do it with their own way of doing it. They don't copy (other people)."

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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