Learning, Mastery and Communicating Ideas

I want to begin this post with a quote from one of my all-time favorite books on art for children (and adults) Doing Art Together by Muriel Silberstein-Storfer.

When anyone learns to ride a bicycle, usually after much effort on the part of both the guiding person and the beginner, he or she rides at first for the sheer joy of making the bike move and pleasure in controlling it. When the bicycle finally becomes a vehicle for exploration, transportation, and adventure, it is an instrument of new experience. Similarly, when anyone starts to work with art materials, he or she experiences this same exhilaration of moving the medium and controlling the brush and colors. After gaining control, studio work becomes involved with movement or communication of ideas.

This metaphor is a great illustration of the learning that happens when children are allowed an open-ended environment and opportunities to explore media. Each moves through the developmental stages of art in his or her own time and many have a favorite way of working that often precedes important new risks and adventures in communication and meaning.

Below are 3 paintings completed in one afternoon.

In this case the paintings were completed during our warm-up time, we offer a circle drawn in pencil on the page as a starting point. This mandala form provides a starting point for kids and a common routine to begin exploration of different media.

This young artist is very tactile and really enjoys exploring the sensory quality of materials and the flowing nature of the paint. The painting on the left, completed first is typical of his paintings in class. The page is full of color and brush strokes are clear moving through the thick paint.

Above, the artist begins his first painting with some awareness of the circle. As he continues in the picture below the joy of just moving the flowing colors takes over and he covers the page.

His second painting shows a bit more awareness of the shape on the page. There is still the characteristic blocks of color and visible brush strokes but a beginning of shaping the painted strokes to the circle shape.

Other children at the table chose to use the circle form to paint faces. While working on his second painting, the artist began to talk about painting a portrait of his friend from school. The awareness of the circle seemed to be a first step toward thinking about a face.

The third painting of a face was a real step forward for the artist in choosing to do a representational image and to follow through on his idea to paint a portrait. He began with eyes, nose and mouth.

He added the hair and finished with the neck and ears, narrating as he added each detail.

The series of paintings below are a lovely illustration of moving from the pure joy of materials to beginning to communicate ideas - in this case to portray a friend using those materials.

Not a Tube

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis is a favorite among our preschool studio classes.

We often talk about reusing and finding new uses for things in the studio - for instance the many recycled containers that hold our supplies.
For this project, we tried using our collage supplies to create variations on cardboard tubes.
It's not a tube, it's a...

Rocket ship!

Light saber - notice the button to turn it on.

a princess

and a castle!

I was surprised by all the careful de-constructing as well as construction related to using the tubes.

Exploring the Loom

A stand-up loom is a new feature in the studio and has generated varied interest from our four to six year old classes. Almost everyone first thought it was a harp.

Soon there were explorations of weaving in and out of the warp thread with colorful ribbons.

Sometimes it was a good strategy to have a partner to pass the ribbon back and forth working out a pattern.

It seemed to progress that one child would teach another who would become the partner until one lost interest and then another would come along so a new partner was trained. As you can see above, initially there was weaving all over the loom. We tried to start at the top but realized that we were working against gravity so we switched to weaving from the bottom up. Sometimes pulling out the woven strand was part of the fun - we need to understand how things come apart as well as how the fit together.

This student had previous weaving experience in preschool ans was more focused on the task and beginning to work on patterns in his weaving. His interest encouraged his peers to want to learn in our next class.

A Memorial

This project began with the announcement by a young artist, "I made my grandma - she died so she's in the box." She spoke matter-of-factly about the creation featuring a drawing on a slab with the addition of a slab above (a headstone?).

The others at her table became interested in the project and with some great peer teaching helped her to score and slip to make stronger sides to fully realize this idea of a box.

The angle on this final photo makes it a bit harder to see the drawn figure but she is there, now surrounded by her box.

What captivated me about this story was this young artists' ability to create a memorial to her grandmother and the support she received from peers during the process. The focus stayed very much on the logistics of creating this box. I don't recall peers asking much about the death or even the usual sympathetic remarks one might expect to hear after hearing of a loss in a family. And yet, it did not feel as though the group was insensitive - it was just a very matter-of-fact sort of interaction. This is what happened - my grandmother died, they put her in a box and so I am making a sculpture of my grandmother in the box.

Speaking to the artist's mother, it was in fact her great-grandmother who died and she said that her daughter's questions focused a great deal on trying to understand what happened when someone dies. The great-grandmother was cremated so it was a very small box that was buried and this at the time seemed difficult for the child to reconcile - many questions related to why the box was so small. Perhaps, by creating a small box and drawing grandma inside, this young artist was able to work out artistically this part that seemed to not make sense at the same time creating a personal memorial of her great-grandmother.

Sewing Continues and Connects

Asked to show his collage, this young artist proudly shows the side where the sewn yarn shows through....

A long length of fleece is added to form a connection between two collages.

Working at the same table, this artist sews with the lengths of fleece

adding ties with yarn as well as the items already glued to the design.

Week 2 - these artists specifically requested a return to collage the following week, again working with the hole punches and various fibers to build connections and sew lines.

Here different different textures of yarn begin to form a border.

With a line down the middle created in holes cut carefully by folding and using scissors.

And the final piece ready for presentation on a visit to grandma later in the afternoon.

More Sewing

This young artist really enjoyed the hole punch tool.

For his sewing he found a length of black elastic - stitches were large and criss-crossed the paper.

Which made for a great effect when he pulled the end and the paper rolled.

Creating motion in his page with the pull of the string became a source of fascination and excitement.

Sewing

Sewing in the studio has been popular lately - a sort of surprise discovery as part of our collage process. Hole punching is always a favorite part of collage and the suggestion that perhaps a string could pass through the holes began a series of sewn collages across several classes and age groups.

Here a length of string is sewn to form a border all around a page.

This sewn collage created additional interest with other collage groups throughout the week.

This young artist punched holes and chose string, telling me as he worked that he wanted a sewing machine....

...then he wouldn't have to do such hard work! And yet, he stuck with the challenge of pulling the length of yarn through each hole, creating a sewn collage that reminded fellow artists of a kite.

Wheels in clay

In our first week exploring clay in the Art in the Morning class, this young artist became especially fascinated with the way bottle caps make impressions in clay.

He referred to them as "wheels" and delighted in seeing the different surfaces they left in the clay as he made roads.

Feeling the ridges on a bumpy road.

The metal cap made a smooth road, while the ridged cap had even more bumps.

Matching the tool to the road it made.

Using 2 Sides of the Paper to Tell a Story

This is the turkey and he has to go all the way around to the back of the paper...

...to get the candy and the noodles.