Lynda McCann-Olson: Student Interest Leads to Passion

This quote from The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things, by George Kubler captures my experiences as an artist, educator, and catalyst of cultural diplomacy: “Art engages with one’s relationship to time: being in the present, relating to the past, and projecting into the future.”

I enjoyed a robust thirty-three-year career as a visual arts educator for K–6 students in MSAD#51, serving the towns of Cumberland, North Yarmouth, and Chebeague Island. Responsibilities included curriculum research and design. This task encouraged my favorite sport of ウサギの穴 (usagi no ana), Japanese for going down a “rabbit hole,” or getting lost in a topic. One rabbit hole transformed into the hallmark of my program, turning into a passion.

A Chinese brush painting book purchased as an activity for our visiting niece started the adventure. We experimented with techniques and principles in the book. As a result, I designed a simple activity for students. The level of student engagement and thoughtful questions inspired by the unit encouraged an expansion of the unit. I found “The Three Perfections: Painting, Poetry and Calligraphy,” a workshop offered at the University of New England, and attended with my list of student inquiries and rapt attention. Connections with the presenters led to opportunities such as inviting calligrapher Gan Xi to my school as a visiting artist. Students were enthralled by his presence, knowledge, and skill. Conversations with Gan over lunch provided a tutorial on the connections between Chinese culture, art, and calligraphy.

Student interest and enthusiasm for Asian culture and art did not wane. My pursuit of deeper knowledge to inspire units continued. I participated in a variety of programs, from webinars to weeklong initiatives, held as far away as Anchorage, Alaska, offered by the National Consortium for Teaching East Asia, an organization funded by the Freeman Family Foundation. These opportunities boosted my skills and knowledge to the next level. Now I share my enthusiasm by providing program support in New England.

The motivating forces for my deeper dive were student interest and engagement. Students were fascinated by the Asian pedagogical principle of copying a master to learn brushpainting. A student must master four specific paintings before they can move on to develop their own style. This was antithetical to my experience as an art student and training as an art educator. Another discovery was student receptivity to rules, such as how to hold the brush, proper posture, and specifics for a successful composition.

In Japan, brushpainting or Sumi-e is known as bird and flower painting and is influenced by Daoist and Confucian ideas regarding harmony and nature. This style of painting shares the same brushstroke as the characters of the written language. China is the oldest continuous civilization, dating back over 5000 years. The art and culture of China influenced the art and culture of Korea and Japan. Brush painting is the basis of design for woodblock prints.

The Chinese brushpainting unit expanded to a year-long grade 5 curriculum including ceramics, K-Pop, manga, and creative objects used as part of cultural traditions. Darumas were a student favorite, based on a trinket for setting and evaluating goals. Darumas are traditionally made of papier-mâché and vary in scale from the size of a gumball to the size of a sphere large enough to hold a compact car. Students chose to create Darumas in paint, collage, or polymer clay.

Projects include a literacy component providing cultural context with picture books. Projects unfold as a series of activities introducing a range of skills, media, and techniques. Students are granted agency in subject choice to encourage self-expression.

Students engaged in the present moment as they learned and created, engaged with the past as they made contextual connections to East Asia, and looked to the future as they followed a spark ignited in grade five art. Although we considered the historical context and addressed formal elements, we did not focus on classification in a scholarly art historical sense. Instead, we considered the timeless appeal and valuable incorporation of other world views. This pursuit is in keeping with Kubler’s vision of The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things.

A goal of mine was to travel to China. While recovering from bilateral carpal tunnel surgery, I discovered the organization Where There Be Dragons. A scholarship made it possible for me to travel to China with a group of global education coordinators from around the country. That experience grounded my work in the classroom with deeper authenticity. In the company of like-minded educators and thoughtful guides, I experienced artists, culture sharers, and a homestay.

The following year I was honored to have my East Asian art curriculum recognized. I was invited to travel to Aomori, Japan, Maine’s sister state on a cultural exchange during the November Art and Culture Day holiday, when Aomori schools host a printmaking project for grades 1–6. They wanted an elementary art teacher from Maine to learn about the history, cultural connections, and teaching methodologies used in printmaking. The exchange was sponsored by Friends of Aomori and the Aomori City Morning Rotary Club. An extensive itinerary of school observations, gallery visits, museum tours, and artist workshops was carefully orchestrated by Hiro Ono, President of the Munakata Shiko Memorial Museum of Art, and Dr. Tadashi Suzuki, a urologist who specializes in kidney adaptation after transplant. Ono-san had worked with adult printmakers in the Maine Aomori Printmaking Society (MAPS) and wanted to continue an exchange. Dr. Suzuki lived through World War II, and dreamed of initiating a creative act of cultural diplomacy between children in the USA and Japan. They wanted to plant a seed of cultural diplomacy and person-to-person relations in the form of an art exchange with children that could become a legacy between sister states.

I incorporated techniques and methods used in Japanese schools with my own students and shared my knowledge in workshops with other educators. My formal art training is in painting and ceramics. My printmaking skills and knowledge are a result of my cultural exchange activities. The most valuable practices I learned in Aomori are the thoughtful and methodical setup of the printmaking station without high-tech or expensive tools. A distinct difference in the process between Maine and Aomori is in the planning of the design. Students in Aomori are asked to create a line drawing, reproduced four times by the teacher. Then they experiment with at least four different arrangements of value, texture, and pattern. Students are advised to select the design that strikes a balance of white, black, and pattern, similar to the balance and interaction achieved in Notan designs exemplified by the yin-yang. I find our students do not have the stamina to plan four value arrangements. I can typically push them for two. They are eager to jump into the printmaking process. The sweet spot comes when they make a test print and assess the range of value, then they are willing to add additional intaglio to improve the balance of the design.

Following my pivotal experience, I agreed to direct and coordinate the Hashi exchange of student prints between Maine and Aomori elementary schools, now in its seventh year. In visual art class or in connection with other areas of study, educators from around Maine are welcome to submit prints created with grades 1–6 students. Prints are displayed in the Hashi-Maine exhibition at the opening of the school year, and in Aomori in early March, at the end of the Japanese school year. Hashi is the Japanese word for bridge. The exchange connects students between the sister states.

In June of 2024, I retired from teaching full-time to embark on an “endless sabbatical”—a series of ウサギの穴 (usagi no ana), or rabbit holes. This journey began with a trip to Anchorage, where I studied Post–Postwar Japan with an expert on Japanese baseball, then on to Seattle for an exploration of the material culture of Edo, culminating with the Hashi–Aomori exhibition. Now I venture deeper in my volunteer roles as President of Friends of Aomori and as a member of the Maine Aomori Sister State Advisory Council.

Portland Public Library hosts a show featuring the sister-state relationship April–June. Mark your calendar to attend the opening and reception in conjunction with First Friday, May 2026. If you would like to participate in Hashi by contributing student prints or learn more about Friends of Aomori, email Lynda.