Students paint hand prints on canvases to express support for community

This article was updated Nov. 9 at 3:55 p.m.

Paul Wislotski wants to heal the campus one bedsheet at a time.

On Wednesday afternoon, Wislotski hung an easel and a white sheet on the corner of Strathmore Avenue and Charles E. Young Drive and offered a palette of colorful oil pastels to every student passing by. He asked them to trace their handprints on the sheet, hoping to give a canvas filled with students’ drawings to the family of the professor who died during Wednesday morning’s shooting.

READ MORE: Full coverage of the Wednesday’s murder-suicide, campus reactions

“This is to help the students and the family grieve,” Wislotski said. “It’s going to strengthen the campus.”

Wislotski’s instructions were simple: Put your hand as close to somebody else’s as possible, don’t use any writing, color only inside your own handprint and make it the best art you’ve ever drawn in your life.

The 57-year-old Florida native has brought his blank bedsheets to 65 campuses across the United States in effort to unite people through his movement of “collective art.” He said handprints are his symbol of choice since they are easy for anyone to draw. In the past, he has sent his colorful bedsheets to military troops and their families and has set up blank canvases at public funerals.

Wislotski said he was at UC Riverside earlier this month, and is planning to go to UC Santa Cruz next week and then up the coast to universities in Oregon and Washington. He spends his days visiting public universities like UCLA with open campuses permitting any citizens to visit freely, since they allow him to set up his bedsheets. So far, he said dozens of students have contributed to each of his bedsheets.

Wislotski said he is confident he will inspire millennials – or “ninety-oh’s,” as he calls them – to set up their own canvasses and bring people together through art.

“A hundred years from now, there’s going to be a million of these art pieces,” Wislotski said. “People will say this is how the ninety-oh’s united their families, this is how they united the world.”

Wislotski said he was working on creating one of his bedsheets with students on Bruin Walk Wednesday morning when he heard the campus was on lockdown. He said policemen told him to evacuate the area, so he stayed in his van before setting up a new canvas for students to fill at the Strathmore and Charles E. Young intersection after the lockdown ended.

Second-year English student Emily Parsons said she was walking from the Hill to the apartments when Wislotski’s colorful canvas caught her eye around 6:30 p.m. Wislotski called her over to contribute her handprint to the gift for the deceased professor, she said.

“My faith in my artistic abilities definitely isn’t great, and I probably wouldn’t have stopped if it was just a piece of showcase art,” Parsons said. “But if it’s for a cause, I’ll do it.”

Max Nath, a second-year linguistics student who added a bright neon green and blue handprint to the bedsheet, said he appreciated Wislotski’s peaceful means of bringing students together. He said he thinks Wislotski’s art project provides a meaningful opportunity for expression and healing for students in light of the morning’s events.

Witslotski said he plans to return to UCLA in front of Ackerman Union on Thursday to give more students the opportunity to contribute their handprints to the bedsheet. He said he also plans to create a piece to give to the shooter’s family.

“I know that might not be popular with the students, but I think we need to remember that (the shooter’s) family is hurting too,” Wislotski said.

On-campus organizations have also begun putting together community efforts toward student healing. Campus counselors extended their hours Wednesday for students seeking help, and undergraduate student government officers plan to host a candlelight vigil Thursday at 8:30 p.m. in Bruin Plaza.