Speaker tells personal story through art
by Stuart Stuebing, reporter

    Everyone has a story to tell, a multicultural storyteller told NW Campus students recently.

   Michelle Washington, artist, actress and singer, brought some of her art with her, including works that depicted Bible stories, African tales and some personal experiences.

   “Everybody has a story, and I convey mine through art. We have to be aware of our stories,” she said.

   Washington is originally from Illinois and did not come to the South until she was 17.

   “I began to look around and see things that were not good,” she said.

   Washington then tried to find herself and started to march with Martin Luther King and Malcom X in the ’60s. Several years older now, she reflects on those days when she was a young activist.

   “One time during a demonstration, Dr. King said I was not passive enough and put me back on a bus and sent me home,” she said.

   “When I was a young girl, a teacher told me that I didn’t learn right. I was a real quiet child, and I was just misunderstood,” she said.

   Washington now holds a master’s degree in education from Capitol University in Bexley, Ohio.

   “I am forever evolving myself. My paintings are for teaching difficult learners, battered children, alcoholics, senior citizens and victims of abuse,” she said.

   One of the main types of art that Washington focuses on is tactile.

   These works are designed so people can touch them. Her tactiles are made of materials that stimulate the hand upon touching them.
One example she brought with her had cloth and packing popcorn attached to it. She passed it around the room and let the audience touch it.

   Washington then asked people to hold out their hands with palms up, and she ran her fingernails across their palms.

   “When people are touched, they can be changed,” she said. “When I counsel, I go deep. I take them back in time to figure out what is bothering them. When people are hurting, they do not want to be touched,” she said.

   Washington has years of experience in counseling and primarily worked at the Huckelberry House, in Columbus, Ohio, as the head counselor.

   “They used to call me the crazy counselor on the top floor,” she said.

   When she worked at the Huckelberry House, she counseled Klu Klux Klan members and child molesters.

   Washington has been featured on magazine covers and in brochures and has designed promotional works for the Texas Educational Network.

   Some of her works can be found at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Carrollton, and she has had her work displayed at the African Art Museum in Dallas.

   “Each painting is prayed for and created as it unfolds as God would have it be,” she said.

   Not only does Washington create art, but she travels throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex as a public motivational speaker.

   She speaks at schools, has had extensive exposure on radio shows and performs at senior citizen homes and adult assisted-living centers. Washington said she enjoys performing at senior citizen homes.

   “I see the joys of regained memory through a new form of visual, verbal, creative and art storytelling. This helps maintain gerentology’s positiveness, and it helps lessen the struggles of memory loss,” she said.

   After the NW presentation, Washington was scheduled to perform again at a local elementary school in Fort Worth. This time she was going to use not only her artwork but also puppets.

   “I often integrate puppets into my presentations for elementary school children and let them design their own shows,” she said.

   “The children need to have an opportunity to touch my artwork and be creative as well,” she said.

   Kevin Hewett, a social work major, said Washington’s presentation was beneficial.

   “I really learned a lot, and social work focuses on communication. I do not know much about art, but I plan on working with inmates and rehabilitating them when I go into the social work field.

   “I know that when people are incarcerated, they use art as a medium, and it is encouraged by the prison system,” he said.