As excited as the people are to get into the cave, when the classes come in, I like to set the scene. We meet around the campfire just outside the cave so I can also lay down a couple ground rules: all four walls okay for painting but not the floor and in or out of the entryway, no loitering. Then I tell a story, usually, it goes something like this.

(Sounds of nature, animals, birds etc. all around) The Earth has been a ball of ice about five times since its creation 4 billion years ago. The last ice age ended about 12,000 years ago. Have you seen that movie?, Ice Age? Yes? Well, that’s where we are today, in our minds. Towards the end of the last ice age, almost all the ice melted, we still have some of it today. Do you know where that ice might be?… The ice, very important ice, is on Greenland at the top, and Antarctica on the bottom. More on that another day… What happens to ice when it melts…it turns into what?… Water! Yes! and the water spread all across the lands (LOTS of hand gesturing here) and from the water going across the lands, plants grew, trees, grasses, berry bushes, and this made life easier for the humans.

It was easier for the humans because it became easier for the animals. Before the ice melted, the animals were constantly traveling around in search of food and the humans needed to follow them because the animals were so important to them. They were important to them because they provided them with food, shelter, and clothing. Yes, the early humans had figured out how to hunt, cook, make tents and even sew animal skins into clothing, which was great because it was still pretty cold.

When the grasses grew in great fields near rivers, the animals would stay in one place and graze. The humans then set up camps next to these rivers where the animals ate. It was a time of plenty. Some humans hunted, some gathered berries. They also invented art. Now you and I take art for granted. We know about drawing, we’ve seen it since we were born. The early humans, had not. Nothing had ever been reproduced. By that I mean, no one had ever drawn anything or seen a painting or sculpture. There was no paint, there were no pencils. But these people had a lot on their minds. Their brains were big, the size of ours. And because they had their source of food right outside their door, they actually had more time on their hands. We don’t know why they invented paints and painting, but why they chose their main subject, the animals, was pretty clear they were everything to them.

Then I hand them each their own torch to bring into the fire-lit cave and suggest they paint whatever is important to them on the walls.

Class ends around the campfire where I tell them we’ll be back in the cave again next week with different lights, different paints and different sounds. until then, enjoy the pics…