Space for Slowness

I drew this doodle inspired by a logo I saw from the slow food movement.  They have a "snail of approval" award.

I've been thinking a lot about spaces for slowness since reading this quote in Ursula Kolbe's wonderful book on drawing with children, It's Not a Bird Yet.

She writes,

"As anyone who has watched young pattern-makers knows, they build their configurations slowly, contemplating each step almost meditatively.  'She goes into another world,' aid one mother of her five-year-old pattern-making daughter." 

In another instance Kolbe writes,

"...when children make things, they also create spaces for themselves to be in.  A special place where they can pursue their own interests, where they feel free to be who the are, where their presence is somehow magnified.” 

- Ursula Kolbe in Children's Imagination: Creativity Under Our Noses

The more I observe young makers and indulge my own creative process to allow for slowness, the more I see where spaces for slowness are such a gift to both adults and children.  

I love how the slow food movement has embraced this celebration of slowness and am curious where other educators and makers see connections as well.

Celebration of Intention - A Post from Robin

Our sharing time at the end of classes is a key feature of studio work at Art at the Center.  With students working on a variety of projects, it brings us back together to wind-up and reflect on process. This post by Robin offers more details and reflection on of the Celebration of Intention in her sewing classes.
http://ormondbeachquilts.com/2015/06/celebrationofintention.html

Reflections with Staff at Emmanuel Preschool

I returned to Emmanuel Preschool after a week as Artist-in-Residence for processing and planning next steps with the staff at the school.

The best part of this discussion was how the engagement and energy of the adults mirrored the engagement and energy of the children the previous week.  Teachers shared new perspectives on individual children as well as stories that confirmed and deepened earlier impressions of a child's process.  I was reminded why it can be so energizing to work in a collaborative environment.

At the same time I also appreciated each teacher's honesty in sharing ways that a new way of working was challenging or different for them as facilitators.  For example, one teacher tried a follow-up activity  where the children had a large shape with the directive to fill it with collage items in shades of a single color.  This was a class that dove into the collage activity in the studio, with students creating 3 and 4 collages  and two boys stayed for both groups, working a full 90 minutes.  She was disappointed to see they worked as quickly as possible to fill the shape with painted green glue and then moved on to something else.  In our conversation, we were able to explore how the studio exploration of collage focused on getting to know materials and building in an open-ended way on small square papers.  In contrast, filling a shape may have felt more task oriented - it was easier to determine when they were "done" - when the shape was filled - so they worked to get to that end as quickly as possible.
Mostly I was just really grateful to this teacher for sharing what didn't work - that takes confidence and courage and allows for clarification as well as the insights of the group to help with new ways forward.
We broke into small groups to brainstorm next steps for teachers to continue collage exploration in some way in their classrooms.  The four year old teachers focused on patterns and building and ways to extend these and the story telling associated with creations.  The twos teachers discussed exploring color themes and sorting materials with children so they could explore different textures within single color families.  As they discussed ideas, there was an energy in the room and a sense that one idea built on another so that they began to see how exploring variations on a single media could take them through not just one follow-up activity but many.
At the end of the session, one of the threes teachers shared a classroom story.  She read the children a book featuring collage dogs in the illustrations.  Afterward she took them to the recycling center to collect objects and had them work in pairs and groups of 3 to assemble a creature of their own of some sort with the objects.  She photographed the creatures and then the kids told her stories about them and then they took the objects BACK to the recycling center.
I loved this story of taking this open-ended process art idea a step further by just doing the arranging.  The only record of this creation was her photos and notes and yet, perhaps because of this, it was so rich.  The other fun piece to this was that the children did this activity the day before they visited the studio, to help prepare them for the idea of creating with recycled objects.  A lovely example of scaffolding their experience - from just arranging to arranging and gluing.
I left the meeting feeling I had learned as much as the teachers and wishing there were more time for the layered sharing of learning stories - stories of what the teacher learned, what the kids learned, how the teacher set up the experience, how children took it in new directions, how children suggested learning experiences and how teachers witnessed these.  Similarly I am grateful for how much I learned from hearing ways teachers extended the work we began in the studio, sharing my reflections but even more so from hearing theirs.  There were layers of reciprocity in the sharing among teachers, children and myself and I am thankful for the way that will enliven and enrich all our practice.

A Week of Collage with Emmanuel Preschool

I spent a week in March at Emmanuel Preschool working with teachers and students to explore collage.
This was a great follow-up to the hands-on training workshops I did with the Emmanuel staff in the fall.  Fall workshops gave me a chance to get to know the staff as makers, to appreciate their willingness to jump in and get hands messy trying something new and to be part of planning ways to bring a more process and practice based approach to art back to their students.  

One part of this planning include my week as an artist in residence.  Over three days, I got to work with all the students and teachers in the school in small groups in the studio.  I was amazed and delighted by the calm and openness of the teachers, the smoothness of transitions and the richness of conversations that occurred around observing the children and their creations.  

The first day, three year olds worked in an exploratory and energetic way.  They experimented  with placement of objects, layering and glue.  Some moved toward patterns and representational images.

The following day progressed to longer sessions and more involved work with the four and five year olds.   These makers shared strategies and stories, with many working to create representational images, stories, patterns or built 3D environments.

Moving from work with four and five year olds to studio time with two year olds was a good reminder of the vast difference in development in preschool ages.  The youngest makers were half the age of their older peers; they approached the studio experience and me more cautiously.   This group particularly enjoyed painting with the glue.

Exploring ways the glue will drip off the brush.

Lots of glue!

Exploring sticking different shapes and textures to the glue - fabric, button and paper.

I also gained a new appreciation for how challenging it can be to stay the course in following what is developmentally best for very young children.  We do not feel disappointed that a two year old does not ride a two wheeler.  It seems the very definition of two-year-old-ness to ride around on a push toy.  In the same way, a two year old collage that consists of mostly painting glue is an indication that a two year old is just where they need to be developmentally.  Painting glue and feeling it's stickiness on their hands is what will allow them to form patterns and images later just like getting a sense of balance and motion on a push toy will allow them to be ready when it is time for a two-wheeler.

Paper Architecture Creates Learning Environments

Below you will see additional images of learning environment designs created using a variety of paper building and collage techniques. Notice the color, variety and ingenuity used in the designs.

The above environment features symbols for resources such as funding, people and transportation to access learning opportunities beyond the classroom.

Natural and playful elements like the tree and the slide to enter the classroom make learning fun and exciting.

The environment above features a variety of working, meeting and seating areas as well as access to the outside (on the right).

The hearth adds warmth and a sense of home while the central circle features a meeting place that can transform and take advantage of technology by projecting on the ceiling depending on the needs of the learning meeting and subject.

Lofts, lots of books and cozy nooks for reading are of utmost importance.

This designer really valued quality supplies and took the care to create these mini supplies for her worktable.

Art (Paper Construction) and Thinking Skills

In this workshop for upper elementary teachers, participants created ideal learning environments using paper sculpture and collage techniques.

The focus was on how art can help develop thinking skills and we took particular inspiration from the Studio Thinking Habits of Mind developed by Lois Hetland and Ellen Winner at Project Zero.

Paper architecture offers great opportunities for problem solving, inventing and creating using simple materials. Working in a group setting adds the added benefit of learning from the process and discoveries of other artists.

At the beginning of the day when we discussed goals several teachers mentioned working through perfectionism and fear of failure when drawing and making art with upper elementary students.

This sort of activity which begins with building and then presents drawing at the end as a tool for collaboration and communication can help get around some of those fears.

Below are a few different views of one group's combination of several learning environments to create a learning community.

The group had to take into consideration how to connect their learning environments and how flow and function would work together in a shared space.

The multi-level design allowed for great variety in use of space and highlighting features that worked together well.

The group drawing depicts the plan for connecting the different learning environments and presents a plan for a unified learning community.

Learning to Engage and Persist in the Studio and at Home

The second habit of mind is engage and persist. It relates to the development of focus and concentration as well as frustration tolerance and the ability to work through a challenge using creative problem solving skills. I think of my own household and my desire to develop a can-do attitude of stick-with-it-ness in my kids.

In the studio we find attention spans grow over time as children become more familiar with the tools and materials. So setting the routines and expectations as discussed in developing craft helps set the stage for engagement.

One important part of the engage and persist habit in the studio relates to a commitment to the process rather than the product. One of my favorite quotes from the clay table "I like it here because you are allowed to smash what you make." This came from a very accomplished young clay sculptor. With clay there is a time to keep going and a time to wedge the clay back into a ball and begin again. She understood this and would often begin her clay work with several playful sculpture before settling down into a piece she planned to save.

Play can also be an important component for the child who has trouble beginning, often because they are worried about whether they will do something correctly or well enough. I remind kids that artists often begin by playing with ideas and materials and that they may want to do the same. Once they get over getting started they can engage in the process.

Set backs are a natural part of the creative process - it is how we deal with challenges that determines success. Modeling problem solving, error recovery and that it is okay to ask for help or take a break can help kids to work through frustration. The studio is a good environment to practice creative risk taking with a supportive environment other artists.

By mid-way through our sessions, I find it challenging to ask artists to disengage when it is time to clean up. When kids are very motivated in a creative activity, it can be difficult to transition to something else. I find that routines help here too; we can offer reassurance that there will be time to come back and continue. At home this might mean having a display shelf for in-process lego creations as well as bins for loose parts. It is much harder to disengage if you fear your hard work may be lost. Discussing, writing, or drawing next steps and even gathering or listing the materials that will be needed can also help children to disengage and be ready to step right back into their work when they return.

Developing Craft in the Studio and at Home

In our studio, we use the Studio Thinking 8 Habits of mind as a framework to talk about the learning we see happening in the artistic process. These habits of mind were developed at Project Zero and have been applied in various arts and educational settings from visual art classes to dance studios and arts integration lessons in general education classes. As we write, think and talk about these ideas more and more, I have been struck by the idea that these habits of mind are equally applicable at home as in the studio.

So, let's start with the habits of mind, "Develop Craft" Developing Craft is similary to establishing routine and setting up a time and place to practice, work or play. It includes skill development, the basics of using tools, developing technique. In the studio this means learning about materials: the uses for tools, techniques for materials, as well as care and cleaning routines. With clay, even the youngest artists learn that we put the clay back in the bag with some water to preserve it's plasticity for the next use. As kids begin to sculpt with clay they learn the process of connecting clay pieces by scoring and slipping. Each of these things is part of the craft of working with clay. When painting, young artists are introduced to ways to care for brushes - for them color mixing is very experiential happening before their eyes on the paper. As kids grow as painters, they learn to be more deliberate in their color mixing, using a color wheel as a tool for mixing and planning recipes of colors to achieve just the right shade or tint. Again, this is all part of developing craft in painting.

At home, I think about developing craft when working with my kids in the kitchen, learning where things are kept, what tools are used to measure and to combine ingredients. This can be as complex as getting the feel for separating an egg or as simple as knowing how to use the sponge correctly to clean up spills. Clean-up is a big part of developing craft, especially in a shared space; materials need to be cared for so they will be ready for use. I came home the other day and noticed our rakes lying in the front yard. I had been so pleased with my children's enthusiasm for helping rake (motivated by being able to jump in a REALLY big pile) that I forgot about taking care of our tools. So as you go about chores at home or practice hobbies, work in the garden, even washing your car, notice the routines and craft you use and share this with your children. The sharing is likely to encourage their help and a great way to begin is by knowing where things are kept, how to set up and how to clean up.

Back to school is a good time to think about Developing Craft - as we settle into routines and work to establish good habits we are crafting our lives.

Click here to read more about the studio habits of mind...Studio Thinking for Young Minds.