By Suzanne Hodgson
Staff Writer

“Music is a form of art,” said Fay Hsieh-Lewis of Kennebunk. “Sometimes when you listen to music you can visualize a picture.”
Hsieh-Lewis, 16, volunteers at the Kennebunk Free Library and came up with the idea for a children’s art class during the winter break to listen to different types of music and draw what the music made the children see.

 “I don’t know if they’ll get it,” Hsieh-Lewis, an aspiring artist, said before her experiment, “It might be kind of confusing.”
The parents of the eight children, grades two through five, who showed up for the class were excited but didn’t know what to expect.
“Music influences other forms of art,” said Randy Earnest, father of Gabriella, 10, and Mirette Earnest, 8, two children in the class, but admitted he wasn’t sure what his daughters would bring home.
The children ended up bringing home more than a dozen different colored pencil and charcoal pictures, with each picture corresponding to a different type of music.
Hsieh-Lewis played two Beatles songs, a Chinese pop song, the Lucy and Linus jazz theme from “Peanuts” and the theme from the original TV show “Mission Impossible,” although many of the students knew the song from the animated movie, “The Impossibles.”
Bernie Alie, the children’s librarian for the library, recognized most of the children from the library’s book club and from the families who come every week.
Hsieh-Lewis and her assistant Kelia Ingraham, 14, said they have both been coming to the library since they were younger and first began their love of reading during “book buddy’s,” the library’s children’s’ reading group.
During one of the songs played for the class, Talia Kremser, 9, of Kennebunk, asked if anyone had read the book “Coraline” because the song made her think of scenes from the story.
Her charcoal picture shows Coraline leaning through a doorway and the words, “we are small,” on the top of the page. Kremser said the words and picture were from the book.
The first song played during the hour-and-a-half long activity was “Wipeout” by the Surfaris. Hsieh-Lewis tried to explain to the children to write how they felt when the song came on, but most of the students were happy just to dance.
Charlie Smith, 7, wrote happy birthday on his picture because he said it made him feel happy, and some of the other students drew pictures of the beach and surfers on the waves.
Hsieh-Lewis gave the students direction during the class, “take up the whole page, a song deserves to be on a whole sheet of paper,” Hsieh-Lewis said.
During the song “Time to say Goodbye” Sofia Smith, 9, said she drew, “girl crying because she doesn’t want to go.” A jazz song prompted Mirette Earnest to draw fireworks and raindrops.
Near the end of the class some of the students’ minds stopped being so imaginative and Hsieh-Lewis led them around the room to point out which paintings done by a local artist best described the music.
The students picked out their favorite art work and glued the picture on colorful paper before leaving.
“I think it went very well,” said Alie to Hsieh-Lewis.
Hsieh-Lewis volunteers at the library once a week and while she does not have any specific programs she will be leading, the library’s new children’s winter calendar includes book clubs and art classes for all ages.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.