Art for Joy : His Eye is on the Sparrow

The story behind the hymn, and the simplest How-To!

Art Class is back in session! This week we listened to "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" (Sister Act 2 style obviously) and talked about Civilla Martin of Nova Scotia who wrote the lyrics. Civilla was visiting her friend, Mrs. Doolittle, an older woman who was bedridden and perpetually sick but was always "bringing inspiration and comfort to all" who knew her. Civilla mustered the courage to ask her how she could remain so cheerful and Mrs. Doolittle replied, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” Civilla carried those words home and wrote the rest of the lyrics to “His Eye is on the Sparrow” from inspiration found in Psalm 32:8 and Matthew 6 and 10.

Our art project, collaged sparrows, turned out beautifully. I'm always struck by how each individual brain and hand creates something totally unique. The choices of colors and content -- all so different! I love it. (My friend and neighbor, Krista, helped me prep and this is her beautiful bird pictured.)

HOW TO:

Gather the following:

paper scraps of your favorite colors and magazine images

a glue stick

scissors

a paper or shape (like a sparrow) to stick them on.

Instructions:

Turn on hopeful music.

If you want to collage on a shape like this sparrow, I suggest tracing/drawing your image on one side of the paper, then turning it over and collaging on the other side.

Begin to compile the scraps you like, either cutting or tearing them out

Use the glue stick to glue scraps onto the paper/shape

Then at the end turn it back over and cut it out along your lines. Makes filling the space so much easier. (My genius friend/neighbor did it this way.)

Collage can be so calming. Your kids will love this too. We did this with a group of little neighbor girls recently and I was so impressed with their creations.

Stay tuned for more projects this year from my class and a bit of the work I'm doing with individual therapeutic art clients. Such a joy!