Convenor Luke Lamprecht's reflections from Lefika La Phodiso (The Art Therapy Centre) Annual Report

ATC: ANNUAL REPORT INTRODUCTION 2013_2014

Luke Lamprecht

There is a level of irony in my writing the introduction to this work that is beyond words. I have been involved in some way at Lefika for the past 20 odd years. In all of that time I know what we do is essential, I also know that it is often wordless and housed in a very sacred place where people can express themselves as themselves. Expression is an important outlet for the challenges faced by our young democracy. Seeking to understand and make sense of our lives expressed through creative expression may ironically be paradoxical. Once we find words, do we lose the essence of what we are and are doing?  In the madness that sometimes feels ever present in South Africa, I am reminded of Picasso.

“The world today doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?”

What do you see?

Don’t look, just feel. 

As for me…

I see a child who was given a brush that gave her a big smile. A child who was given a blank piece of paper and could make her mark. I see a child who was given paint and made colour dance on a page with wild abandon. I see the paint sing of the innocence that is a child’s natural state.

I see adults observing the joy and true nature of a child at play in a world they create and is not judged or constricted. A safe place to find themselves and be held by the adults present to witness their evolving creation.

I see THIS CHILD through their eyes as they emerge with paint and brush strokes singing and dancing from the page and I wonder,

“If your eyes could speak what would they say”? – The Book Thief.

My eyes would project the humility and pride that being witness to a child’s development can illuminate in the heart and soul of mindful adults and I would say…

Thank you.

Luke Lamprecht

“What art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit.” ~John Updike