C4 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER f Learn to access the brain's right side By C arol B aldw in ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR The room is dark, soft music is playing, and about 15 young people are standing with their eyes closed swinging mark ers, one in each hand, as though they are conducting the orchestra on tape. These imaginary maestri, aged 10 to 16, are in Bette Davies' art class doing exercises that are precursors to draw ing and painting - getting the right side of their brains in gear. In a soft-spoken voice, Davies encourages them to relax their bodies and fill their minds with only the music, to imagine the music is coming to life on film. "Now, you're in right brain," she announces, turning the lights on and handing out images that she wants them to draw. But she wants them to look at those images upside down. "Just look at the shapes. It's the feeling of the shapes that I want you to have. Reproduce only the shapes that you see," she advises. "Relax; take your time; and just let it flow. Don't' put it down on the paper. Let it come out." As her students begin to draw, Davies sits down and begins to explain her art program - Sm 'Art, a program that works on the premise that artists don't necessarily draw any better than anyone else; they just see things differ ently. And that's what she teaches her students - how to see. "Artists don't miss anything. They are so visually oriented and sensitive to what's around them. They become multi-sensory," she explains. However, before her students can see with an artist's eye, they must learn to relax and tap into the creative side of their brains. "Most kids have never learned the relaxation process," says Davies, adding that she believes relaxation exercises should open every class at school, helping the students empty their minds of information overload and give them balance. "They can only be fed so much information...Their inner environment is polluted with information...They need to go somewhere inside them selves to let the dust settle and start off fresh," she explains. "They watch too much TV and have access to so much information. They are saturated. They are self-destructing." Davies, who has been drawing all her life, says some of that time was spent in the world of advertising where there were deadlines to meet, and not always when she was in the creative mood. "I had to figure out how to switch to the right side (of my brain) at will," she explains. Now that she has the brain switch ing process down pat, she's passing it on to others, sometimes in classes, other times in private sessions. In the one year she has been teaching Sm 'Art, Davies says about 500 students have gone through her classes. "I have found, without exception, that those who tell me they are not cre ative or can't draw have simply not learned to surrender to their own inher ent creativity," she says. "Our creative selves have a childlike simplicity that is untarnished by the ego. When the ego is denied, our perception alters, and we are once again filled with won der at the simplest form." During Davies' five-day summer programs of one-and-a-half hours per day, her students in the 10 to 16 age group unleash their creativity and learn to draw their names in super-hero let tering, to create a "cirque de soleil dragon", and to shape and shadow "so they understand lighting." With shad owing, says Davies, "You can feel where the sun hits you if your (analyti cal) walls are down enough." With adults, she says, breaking down the walls is more difficult. "It's the control thing. They can't let go.... Letting go is scary stuff," she explains. "Kids don't have as much to undo." As those walls begin to come down, says Davies, her students begin to real ize that art is not frivolous, and their creativity emerges. "It's a self-propelled kind of pro gram," she says, adding that she has also conducted stress management workshops for corporations and teach ers. "Creativity also applies to decision making. I teach them (corporate staff) how to use their intuition in corporate decisions...usually your gut instincts are dead on." Whether individual, group or corpo rate instruction, Davies says her stu dents leave her sessions seeing the Photo by Peter C. McCusker Brandon Davis and Owen Bassett relax and empty their minds before getting into right-brain gear for Bette Davies' art class at River Oaks Recreational Centre. world differently and being able to reproduce what they do see to their sat isfaction. "Once they surrender to their instincts, that's where they're confi dence comes from...(and) the trust. That's what it is - the trust," she says. "They are fully present and can do something fully and completely. The most frustrated child usually becomes the most satisfied at the end of the week." Summer Sm 'Art classes are held in weekly sessions at the River Oaks Recreational Centre, 2400 Sixth Line. Cost is $75. Ages 6 to 9 are taught from 9:30 to 11 a.m. the weeks beginning Aug. 9th, Aug. 16th, and Aug. 23rd, as well as from 1:30 to 3 p.m. the week of Aug. 16th. Ages 10 to 16 have their classes from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the same middle three weeks in August as well as from 1:30 to 3 p.m. the weeks begin ning Aug. 9th and Aug. 23rd. Davies will also be teaching her Sm 'Art classes at a few elementary schools in Halton this fall. Adult sessions, which are $80 for four classes, also begin in September. To register or for more information, call Davies at 845-4205. FREE MAGAZINE WITH PURCHASE OF A FAMILY YEARBOOK BLOCK!Forget "15 Minutes of Fame" Assure your fam ily 1000 years of fame in ... 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