The look of love

Facing prejudice forms artists' views

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Jennifer Forman Weinstein became an internationally recognized sculptress when her body casts of pregnant women were featured on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Weinstein is hoping to stir up some of that same kind of attention with her "Face Tolerance" project, which uses art as a means for youths to understand the issues of racism and tolerance.

"Tolerance is a global issue," said Weinstein. "It's an important issue to bring to schools ... to impact children in a positive manner, at a young age."

Middle school students at La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls had an opportunity to learn more about tolerance and create their own masks under Weinstein's guidance.

Weinstein, now based in Arizona, graduated from La Pietra in 1983. She returned under the school's Guest Artist Program, which brings 20 artists to work with students and expose teachers to new techniques and ideas on an annual basis.

Students worked in pairs, making plaster casts of each other's faces. They later painted and decorated their masks to reflect their views on tolerance. Each mask has a different meaning, depending on its creator, Weinstein explained.

In her teachings, Weinstein uses the ripple effect to demonstrate how the middle-schoolers can make a difference in their own communities. Into a dish of water she adds a drop of water, which creates a pattern of ripples moving outward from the center. The students are told, "Tolerance begins in the classroom, and with a ripple effect it spreads throughout the globe."

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As the only Jewish girl attending a Catholic School in Kankakee, Ill., Jennifer Forman Weinstein grew up facing prejudice and learned quickly how it feels to be an outcast. Later, as a teenager when her family moved to Hawaii, she once again experienced firsthand the effects of racism and intolerance. "I was the haole from the mainland," she said.

But Weinstein embraced the experiences, using them to work toward change in society. She was, after all, just one of many minorities in her school.

"Growing up in Hawaii had a positive impact on my life. My life was shaped by going to school with so many different ethnicities," she said.

"It taught me at a young age how to get along with everybody. It doesn't matter what the color of your skin is, your religion or belief systems. We have a common thread. ... We are all human beings."

The tragedies of the Virginia Tech campus shootings, the Columbine High School massacre, even Sept. 11, 2001, and the Oklahoma bombings are evidence that tolerance must be taught at a young age, Weinstein said.

Her contribution is the "Face Tolerance" project for middle school students, with its goal to make sure no one feels left behind or outside of the circle.

The Arizona-based artist brought "Face Tolerance" to La Pietra-Hawaii School for Girls, from which she graduated in 1983. Working with the middle-schoolers for a week, she helped them create masks and taught her tolerance curriculum. Lessons touched upon issues such as acceptance, empathy, care and togetherness.

Before the mask-making began, students were tasked with defining tolerance in their own words and asked personal questions, such as how they felt when seeing a homeless person. They were asked to envision a world in which all people embraced one another regardless of gender, religious beliefs and race.

"By opening your heart to art, you learn to open your heart to tolerance," she said.

Creating the masks is a hands-on approach to understanding the roots of racism and violence, she added. "'Face Tolerance' enables students from culturally diverse backgrounds to open their hearts to tolerance and their minds to individualism. When it comes to art, there are no wrong answers."

Seventh-grader Julia Marx didn't know the exact definition of tolerance when the project began, but she did know what it felt like to feel left out -- when her "so-called" friend had a sleepover and she was not invited. "It reminded me of my old school, because I was a loner there and it made me feel really bad," she said.

Julia now has a better understanding of how to treat others with respect and incorporate tolerance into her daily life. If negativity, conflict or trouble arise among others, she plans to steer clear. "If they have issues, they shouldn't bring them to school. I stay away from trouble."

Julia created a mask with an Egyptian flair, incorporating sand, feathers and a heart on the cheek.

Monica Oda, another seventh-grader, used marbles for eyes in her mask. "My mask represents being different," she said. Although she has never "yearned to fit in," she now has a greater understanding of tolerance. "For me, tolerance means accepting people, their own personality and stuff," Monica said.

Weinstein makes sure that the students in her program are not paired with close friends. "I like them to work with someone that they know the least."

Each mask they create includes at least one fragment of a mirror so onlookers see themselves in the works of art. "We are all fragments and parts of each other, regardless of our race or religion," Weinstein added. "Your face becomes their face. ... There is an instant connection."

The La Pietra masks definitely expressed individualism. One sported a colorful mohawk; one had a face painted half black and half white. "They are designed with expressive feelings; they are an expression of themselves," Weinstein said.

"I feel like I'm healing through art. It's an angry world but I'm not angry."