Mr. Ben Volta

Ben Volta was such a positive power in the lecture room.  His work with children seemed sooo important to him, and he seemed to genuinely care about the work he did with the children.  He seemed to treat the people he worked with as his studio.  That sounds weird.  Sometimes he is approached with a project idea, and asked to work with children or within an educational institution.  He then begins what seems to be a REALLY greuling process of brainstorming, trial and error, more brainstorming, starting over, more brainstorming, construction, production, more brainstorming, and what makes this seem so intense is that it is done with children.  Essentially he begins a path for these children to sort of start to follow, but he lets them learn on their own, take the path in their own directions and take is as far as they see fit.  All of this creates amazing pieces of art done essentially by children. He is a shephard I believe.  He seemed like a really wonderful person with a lot of energy and a lot of love to give as well.  Finally someone asked him if this was a rewarding way to practice art, and asked if it was fullfilling for him as an artist, and he responded basically saying that he had let go of the selfishness of creating art for oneself, and the reward was helping the kids do something amazing that they could call THEIR OWN.