by Pranat Jain, Grade 12
In the session ‘Feeling Shy, Feeling Brave,’ Rishita Loitongbam engaged with audiences ranging from 6-year-old students to teachers and fellow authors. In her own language of visual metaphors and imagery, Ms. Rishita explained how pictures and colors can be used to depict one’s sentiments. The book Thoithoi Feels Shy is a prime example of this type of communication, in which she masterfully conveys the sense of shyness without any words or dialogue. Rishita’s demeanor mirrored her protagonist Thoithoi’s in the way that she evolved over the course of the session, opening up more to the audience of children and adults present.
In the book, social anxiety is represented through Thoithoi’s gut transforming into an octopus, an extreme visual metaphor of the emotion the protagonist feels. The audience was asked to think of different emotions and draw them using metaphors associated with each emotion. Everyone beautifully expressed their interpretation of happiness, sadness, excitement, stress, and other emotions, using crayons and color pencils. Drawings ranged from happiness being represented as floating through clouds and a colorful sky, to drawings of comfort, such as one’s ‘happy place’ amidst nature.
This session served as a testament to the fact that art is an exquisite means of expression and serves as a universal language, and that, as Ms. Rishita said, “everyone is an artist.”
