Kid Version -- Playing in the Dirt

Hi guys!

How are you doing? Since I last wrote, I finished up a term in Savannah, Georgia, and flew to France, where I am living and studying art for a while.

Some of you may know that I like to paint with mud. I think it is great for a few reasons. Here are some of them:

1.) It is cheap (almost always free!)
2.) Almost everyone can find some and use it
3.) It makes pretty patterns and designs on the paper which other paints can’t do.
4.) It makes me think about the place where I got the mud when I’m painting a picture

Now I have a question for you: what color is dirt? When I was younger, I would have said, “Brown!” I would have been right, but not completely. You see, dirt is made up of different combinations of minerals, clays, pieces of plants, sand and other materials. The color of the dirt depends on what is in it. One of my favorite things about being in this part of France (the south) is the variety of dirts I get to see every day. I’ve been collecting different samples from each place I visit and I now have about 40 different colors! Can you believe it? All from one small area! They are mostly reds, browns and yellows, but some are darker than others. Some are lighter. Some are more green while others are more purple. I put the dirt in a plastic bag, then bring it home where I mix it with water and pour it through a strainer to filter out the bigger things like rocks, leaves and snails. After I put any snails back in the garden outside, I pour the dirt in yogurt cups and let it dry out.

Here you can see the mud drying in yogurt cups on the windowsill.

Eventually, they become solid chunks of dirt and I use them like the watercolor paints you might use.

Here are some of the muds I used in my last art project after they have been filtered. One of them isn't mud. Can you tell which one?

A lot of the new colors I collected came from an amazing place called Roussillon. Its name means “red trench.” A trench is like a little canyon in the ground, and from these next few photos, I’m sure you can guess where it got its name.

Walking around in Roussillon.

Part of the "red trench"

Roussillon from the ochre mine.

Some windows in Roussillon.

You see, almost all the buildings in Roussillon are painted orange, red, brown or yellow because it is right next to an ochre mine. Ochre is used to make paints and it’s found in the ground, just like gold or diamonds, but to me, ochre is more valuable. It comes in many different colors and I think most of them are in Roussillon. The yellows were so bright I wanted to wear sunglasses and some of the reds were so dark, they looked like dried blood.

Isn't this crazy?

You can imagine how excited I was to see all these different colors of mud, especially since the whole town was painted in them. Or if you can't imagine, I'll show you:



If you could paint the buildings in your town any colors, which ones would you choose?


One of my favorite stories is one at the beginning of the Bible, where we are told that God made Adam out of dirt and then breathed into him to bring him to life. I like to pretend that God did that for every human, that each of us is made from some dirt and a bit of God-breath. As I’ve been seeing, there are so many different colors of dirt that God could choose from! It’s no wonder that people all look different. Some of us have yellowish skin, while others of us have redder skin or brown skin. I think there must be as many different colors of people as there are of dirt.

After collecting dirt in Roussillon, my skin color was different!

The more you look at people in your city, your school, your church and even your family, the more you will realize how different we all look. What color is your skin? What color are your eyes?

But if you keep looking (and it’s always important to keep looking!), you will also notice that we are all quite similar too. We each have a head with a face on it. We all smile sometimes and frown sometimes. We all need to eat and drink and sleep. Do you know someone whose skin is a different color than yours? Try to think of three things that you and he or she have in common. Maybe you both wear glasses. Maybe you both like cheese pizza or basketball. Maybe you speak the same language. Or maybe you both like playing in the dirt.

Have a good week!

Love,
Sarah Jackson