Art is personal. Art is individual. What one person may find beautiful the next might not and that's okay. I think students should feel free to express themselves any way they wish. Who says that coloring in the lines is artistic? Coloring outside the lines in art should be the same as thinking outside the box! Art shouldn’t have all these rules. Art should be freedom to express. ( I use the disclaimer that coloring inside the lines serves the purpose of developing fine motor skills... but we can’t squash creativity and self-confidence in children when they can’t!! Fine motor skills will come with experience and maturity...but an insecurity towards creating artwork is hard to overcome!)
 |
| (www.oopsiedaisy.com) |
On the drive home
after school one day, my six year old son told me that he was a bad “color-er”. I said that that wasn’t true to which he responded
that yes it was, his teacher had told him he was a “bad color-er”. I said, “I
don’t think you are bad at coloring, in fact, when we get home you can color
something for me so I can see...because I know that you are not bad at coloring”. He hung his head down and said, “No mom, it’s true. Mrs. “B”
told me and I already know.” And so began his hatred towards art for the next
5 years (not sure he’s over it even still)!
If beauty is in
the eyes of the beholder then, as teachers, who are we to say something isn’t
art. It may not have met our criteria, but I really struggle with saying it’s
not “good art”. We can follow our rubrics but at the end of the day, the
assignment of grades on artwork (or poetry) is subjective. Case in point: The
following piece could easily have received a failing grade (though the artist
is an adult!)
 |
| (http://artsalesindex.artinfo.com/asi/lots/4132118) |
Joan Miró i
Ferrà April 20, 1893 –
December 25, 1983)
Earning
international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox
for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation
of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró
expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois
society, and famously declared an "assassination of painting" in
favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting.
 |
| www.patheos.com |
You've raised important points. Poor assessment habits in any of the arts, or in any subject for that matter, can have such lasting negative effects on children. Most of us might not call someone a "bad colourer" but that may not be exactly wha the teacher said - certainly it is what your son "heard"! I agree that fine motor skills will come with time and how important is colouring in the grand scheme of things except to teach children to conform or to follow instructions, which are goals that are NOT specified in our arts IRPs? But what DO we say? How do we respond to kids' creative efforts? We need to address this in class before practicum.
ReplyDeleteIt's those negative thoughts that keeps a child's love and passion for art from growing. There is no right or wrong way of colouring, yes I agree with you that motor skills will come with practice. This is the beginning of children's creative journey and no one should stop him or her from thriving. So did you confront the teacher about what was said to your son?
ReplyDeleteLaura! I like your common thread of the question, "what is art?" I ask myself this a lot. There are some things I look at (such as most art installations) and say really? This is art? Really? This is garbage put on a pedestal! But it is to someone and it makes someone happy so who cares if I think it's art or not. I would imagine that teachers that teach are to the art PLO's are those that haven't found the artist within themselves, otherwise they may have a better understanding and appreciation of the blurred lines of art. There is no definition, so why would we make students believe there is.
ReplyDeleteI kept thinking about Picasso while I read this post Laura, if everyone had always stayed "inside the lines" in everything we did, nothing cool would ever happen. So much famous, priceless art wouldn't fit the primary school model of art.
ReplyDeleteLaura you raised a very important point that I found myself thinking at times as well, that assessment is subjective. I think for topics such as art, writing and poetry it is quite subjective for we are made to evaluate someones creative work. This is something that I think I struggle with for I feel to evaluate ones creative side is to evaluate something very personal to a person. One cannot know what meaning a creative piece can hold to another. Therefore, we must teach to have appreciation for all forms of art.
ReplyDelete