HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center
VISUAL DIARY Project
Blog 9 6/24/2021
We are sad that today is our last class with the wonderful seniors at Homecrest’s Bensonhurst Senior Center. We want to give a big shout out to Zhikang Ling, “Hong” who has facilitated our zoom classes and recorded and posted our sessions on WeChat. He has also arranged for the drop off and pick-up of the materials needed for each project. Thank you also to Fanny Chen, who has helped to administer the program. We know that Chip Ma is there behind the scenes making sure everything is running just right. Thanks also to Don Lee, for his ongoing support of us. Most importantly we want to thank Karen Zhou who believed in us and was instrumental in giving us the opportunity to teach at Homecrest’s Centers.
The students have created incredible work during this Visual Diary project, and we are pleased to honor their achievements. We look forward to visiting the center next week and seeing some of our students in person where we can look in more detail at their sketchbooks as well as the Taste of Memory and Accordion books, they made last year.
The students learnt how to draw a simple comic strip capturing a moment in their lives. To introduce this idea, we warmed up with simple unconscious actions we do repeatedly every day, such as turning the key in the door. Spica mimed switching on the light, Julisa opened her water bottle and Jing Wei checked WeChat. Ru Ping moved the mouse on her computer, Stella mimed watering her garden with a hose, while Hui Fen gave us all a giant hug. Pun mimed opening her window and breathing in the cool air while fanning herself, Lao Yu brushed her teeth, So Sim mimed working on the puzzle in the newspaper and Sook Fong drank tea.
Sharing our students’ work is integral to our mission and we spend a great deal of time in each class honoring their homework. And these students like doing homework and ask for it!! They completed drawings which incorporated their collection of ephemera. Hui Fen drew 4 figures sitting at a table at the Center. She glued the good luck symbol to the table’s center. Her second drawing showed a handwriting a letter, the envelope in which it would travel and the stamp from her collection attached. Jing Wei used her drawing to tell the story of her trip to the Swiss alps, including the train and the figures with their luggage. She attached various brochures and tickets. Her second drawing of two hands giving and receiving letters was augmented by the letter floating above on wings. This told the story of letters from her eldest brother who has passed, who she misses very much.
Julisa’s quirky drawings always bring a smile to our faces. The drawing of Snoopy atop a PO Box was drawn by her son when he joined the Navy for college. They regularly exchanged letters. Her second drawing is a map of her travels in Hong Kong, carefully detailing specific sites visited in intricate drawings. Her third drawing includes the glass Departures window, but Julisa has brilliantly also written the words back-to-front allowing the viewer to experience the sadness at leaving. Julisa shared that her grandchildren were curious about her homework and told her to include in the drawing “I miss Hong Kong”. It’s a bonus when our students can inspire their grandchildren with their artwork.
Lao Yu documented in her simple drawing her trip between New York and Shanghai even including details of the airline ticket. The Certificate of Appreciation from the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation for her 10 years of dedicated work service as a cleaner at Foxwoods Casino featured prominently in her next drawing with two small figures supporting it. Miu, diligently watches the recordings of our class and she submitted three drawings for homework. In one she explained the importance of observing road signs, in the second she attached a tag from the 2020 Census drawing two hands to show everyone is included and in the third she mapped her trip to Japan in bright colorful drawings and attached the airline ticket.
Pun’s relevant drawing included a voting sticker with a large hand depositing the ballot and two figures with arms raised in joy. She used a thought bubble in which to draw a PO box and a letter to her pen pal. She glued stamps above. Her Madison Square Garden ticket is enhanced by drawings of active figures running to get to the concert. Ru Ping’s fascinating drawing drew a lot of discussion. She attached Chinese ration coupons her father received during the 1960s-1970s as he traveled the country for work. As the coupons were province specific, he had a few left over which she kept. She drew the different food items you could “purchase” with each coupon. Other students spoke about remittances that were sent to them in China by family members who lived in other countries. They claimed the government encouraged this as it brought hard currency into China. You could exchange the money for coupons to get coveted items such as a fridge that were not easily accessible. Ru Ping’s second drawing depicted her travels and she added shadowing under the attached ticket.
So Sim’s figures wave goodbye to the plane traveling to New York City from Hong Kong, through soft drawings of clouds. She included a sentiment, which the rest of the class echoed, “the emotions felt when taking a plane for the first time to travel to a new place”. Her second drawing is of two hats, one red and the other blue. Below them is a photo of her father and his sisters. The two hats were knitted by them as a gift to her. So Sim has mastered the style of knitting the blue hat but is still working on the other. Seeing these hats makes her miss her family. Her next drawing is her 90th birthday celebration at Homecrest. She included the card she was given by the center.
Sook Fong’s open palm carries a good luck souvenir which she received at the casino. She attached $2 and other memorabilia from the casino. Her second drawing is of travel, and she made a large envelope from purple textured paper to include brochures from Yellowstone National Park. Her third drawing is of thankful hands and a figure eating above an attached brochure outlining COVID 19 Food Distribution. Her fourth drawing, again topical, includes a voting sticker with colorful balloons floating above. She has drawn a different perspective of hands feeding the ballot into the machine. Stella documented her trip from New York to Beijing using a map and made an envelope for the ticket and brochures. Her well laid out page has the Forbidden palace centrally placed and she included drawings of the two methods of transport, plane, and bus. Susanna, who also cannot join us live, always submits her homework. She chose Father’s Day as a topic and included a page from a calendar with drawings of a man holding a child and two figures graduating. Her second drawing documented her trip to Shanghai, and she included as memorabilia, an empty individual wet one packet. Her third drawing honors Homecrest and includes her name tag along with drawings of knitting which she learnt at the center.
As inspiration, we shared reference drawings of comic strip characters commenting on everyday situations. Students used the brush marker to draw simple heads to which they added character by experimenting with facial expressions, different hair styles, facial hair such as beards and glasses. They added a body first just the torso then with arms and legs. Next, they drew their avatar and shared it with the class. We brainstormed ways of depicting an action in only a few words and posed questions for them to consider, such as “What troubles or annoys you? What makes you happy?” Using a pencil, they drew four panels then sketched a simple drawing in each depicting their avatar’s action or thought. We are excited to see their finished product which will be shared via WeChat.
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