The thing about the Tysen Knight Art Experience is:
I didn’t get it until I was in the room with the kids when he walked through the door.
Don’t get me wrong, I understood it conceptually.
But I’ve seen what happens to countless dreams of self-proclaimed visionaries who feel the hard work is done once they get that first pat on the back for thinkin’ real hard and coming up with a great idea.
To get my sourpuss brain excited about any idea is a tall order—especially one that, when you take away the bells and whistles, strikes you as a paint-and-sip that just swaps wine glasses for juice boxes.
What’s new or novel about that?
And I’m expected to share in the excitement? MoxieBox’s CEO Jim Warner comes in one day, raving about his latest epiphany and its earth-shattering impact on public education in California.
We’re going to have Tysen Knight, a real-life artist, surprise and inspire students on a day when they are working specifically on a MoxieBox inspired by his artwork!
Isn’t that the greatest idea ever?
Part of what makes MoxieBox special is its passion for connecting with local artists to inspire students with the beauty of their own community. Tysen Knight’s pop art style, infused with modernist notes, Warhol-style hues, and Lichtenstein-esque comic flairs was a perfect partner to help express this philosophy, with the resulting Positively Negative Space MoxieBox giving students in Palm Springs the chance to engage with an art style all their own. It was a match made in heaven, now paying dividends in the form of a whole event centered around this artist partnership.
But, really, who is Tysen Knight?
If you’re in the who’s-who of the Palm Springs art circles, you may know who he is. If you had
attended certain indie film festivals, his award-winning name may have rung a bell. Outside of that, though… let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t be able to tell you who he was. And if I, as the everyday man couldn’t, what were the odds any kid in California could?
Fast-forward to the debut of the Art Experience, and I’m standing in the hot morning sun on a Saturday in Twentynine Palms, shifting from foot to foot outside the door of an elementary school classroom. Tysen himself is next to me, jazzed to do his thing once again. We’re waiting for the teacher inside to reach a point in the lesson we’ve pre-determined as our cue to enter, at which point I come in, put on my ‘radical, dude!’ persona, and announce Tysen’s entrance.
Tysen is calm, cool, and collected; my head is swimming with doubts.
They’re not going to know who he is.
They’re not going to care.
The power of this next moment hinges on name recognition I’m sure these little second graders won’t have.
The teacher hits our cue, I walk in, the cameraman walks in, and I announce Tysen.
Let me tell you, everything changed when those kids saw him.
Starstruck isn’t the right word. Enraptured comes close. Tiny faces burst wide open with excitement, jaws dropped, and gap-toothed smiles and gasps filled the room. It didn’t matter that Tysen wasn’t this world-famous name, or that they wouldn’t have been able to tell him from Adam before that morning. They looked at him like he was a Renaissance artist who popped out of a history textbook. They had only seen him once before- in a brief video played just a couple hours beforehand, where Tysen encourages them to “be inspired”; hardly enough time to develop an emotional connection with him or his image.
Or so I thought.
I learned something very powerful in those first few seconds, something that’s stayed with me through all the Tysen Knight Art Experiences I’ve been a part of since then.
The awards, the name recognition, the popularity, everything– none of it matters. Nothing that Tysen is or does matters, because the second he walks through that door, the only thing that’s true is that you matter.
You matter enough that he’s going to be there, in person, with you and for you.
He could be anywhere, doing one of a zillion other things– but he isn’t, because he wants to be where you are, here and now.
You matter more than anything else in the world.
I’m not much for magic, but there’s something supernatural in a moment like that. It’s one thing to learn about the style of a particular artist; it’s something else entirely to have that artist teach you himself, to say with his actions that you and your future mean more to him than anything else.
This message has a profound effect on kids, and it holds true regardless of classroom composition or student demographics. I’ve been a part of three of these events now, each with wildly different types of students, and the uniform path of initial resistance, gradual acceptance, and utter obsession holds true to such a degree that I can’t help but feel this whole idea was, indeed, catching lightning in a bottle. It’s as simple as reminding kids that they’re not here on this earth to consume, they’re here to create, and for many of them, it may be their first real experience doing so. In no time at all, resistance gives way to expression, and thoughts impossible to convey in words pour out over canvases, telling stories of love, loss, panic, loyalty, fear, joy, conflict, trauma, and peace.
The thing about the Tysen Knight Art Experience is that I didn’t get it until I was in the room with the kids when he walked through the door.
I realize now that it was never really something for me to get. It’s something that says, “you matter,” and that is inspiration enough.
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