My Week as an Elementary Art Instructor
"It's
Elementary, My Dear Picasso"
With
nation-wide cuts in art programs and staffing, many public schools are finding
new ways to bring art education/enrichment to their students. During my extraordinary experience as an Artist-in-Residence/ Guest Instructor
at Tongue River Elementary School (made possible by a local family's financial
gift), I taught acrylic painting to over 200
K-5th graders, as well as at their after-school program. My previous experiences teaching art to kids motivated me to
create a lesson where they'd use their imaginations while learning the basic elements
of art. My objective was to show that
they are all artists, and to help them find joy in painting what they imagine.
I
began each class by asking, "How many of you are artists?" Nearly every K-1st grader raised their
hands, but as the students got older, fewer claimed to be artists. In the oldest classes, some pointed to another
student or said, "Not me."
I demonstrated the assignment by painting
two random organic shapes. I asked
what they could become, and the students always
knew- calling out creatures so varied as
"unicorn!" "duck!" "cat!" and "dragon!"
all at the same time! I obliged,
sometimes by choosing the most outlandish suggestion, and adding lines to make it
come true. Sometimes we rotated
the canvas to find the subject.
Once, two shapes that clearly resembled a cow to me (imagine that)
became a brontosaurus with a very long tail after a student called out "dinosaur!"
My point was to get them to use their imagination to create something out of
two "nothings." We
weren't striving for realism, but creativity. The students painted their shapes, turned them into their subject,
and I spoke about line, color, value, form and negative space as we filled them
in.
The
younger grades dove in with gusto, creating from their shapes charming creatures
with vivid colors and expressions.
Quick, forty-minute class periods led to spontaneous, lively paintings. Some of the older students were
hesitant to make shapes that had no predestined purpose. They'd ask, "But what should I make?" before they'd even made the
random shapes. Like adults, they were
loath to paint without specific
instruction- fearing that what they made would be wrong.
One
boy was having trouble with the second (body) shape for the "Golden
Retriever" head he'd painted (note he had a specific plan before painting
the shapes). I encouraged him to
turn his canvas vertically and paint a big triangle as the body, then go from
there, adding that the big body would make it interesting, and "interesting
is better than perfect" (thank you, friend and drawing instructor, Kathy
Sabine). At the end of class, he beamed
as he showed me his delightful dog painting (right). By turning the canvas, the boy let go of his predetermined strategy. He was pleased with the unexpected results & with his
ability to use his imagination to make something new.
This
method led to dynamic poses and shapes of the subjects, rather than the old
generic "animal" we've all drawn: a profile of variously-sized sausage
links representing the head, body and legs of any creature- determinable by the
ears and tail as to its species.
We start kids with watercolor because it's: inexpensive, compact, quick to set up/clean up, washes out of clothing, and the paint is reconstituted with water, so there's little waste. However, watercolor is an unforgiving medium. Acrylic is more expensive, harder to set up/clean up (I couldn't have done it without the art teacher, Mrs. Wildberger's help), can ruin clothing and paintbrushes, and is not reconstituted with water, but acrylic allows a beginner to explore. There's no "mistake" that they can't paint over. Acrylic is the key to the success of these classes because it takes away the fear of ruining a painting with one false move.
It
warmed my heart to see the pride on students' faces as they showed me their
finished pieces. Though I saw beauty in each of the over
250 paintings, which are currently on display at the school, I estimated the
success of each work by its creator's satisfaction, as that was my goal. Over and over I heard, "This is
the best painting I ever did!"
Kids complimented each other on their paintings, reinforcing the
experience.
One
group did not display elation over their creations- a small class whose teacher
asked me to guide them all in painting a specific scene. I proceeded with caution; although this "step-by-step"
stuff is exactly what adults who come
to my Uncorked workshops seek, students can be hampered by exercises like
this, as rather than expressing their own ideas, they will be worried about
making it exactly like the sample. In the end, the teacher was happy with her beautiful painting;
the "class artist" was somewhat pleased, and the three remaining
students were disappointed, even though theirs were most interesting, having
art elements I've seen on the walls at MoMA. Hung up on the fact that it didn't look like the demo, those
students couldn't see the beauty in their abstracted shapes, brilliant colors
and compositions, even after I'd pointed them out. This experience reinforced the fact that adults and children
approach learning art in completely different ways. I will remember that.
A
week of teaching art to over 200 kids turned into my learning a hundred new
things, chief among them is that if we celebrate students' individuality and
imagination while teaching the elements of art, we can foster their confidence,
and buy them a few more years (or maybe a lifetime) of believing in their own artistic
abilities and ideas. Perhaps some
of these kids will ignore the invisible "middle school memo" that says
there's one "class artist," and they should stop creating. Maybe one day, adults won't have to come
to 2-hour workshops to recapture what they lost decades ago-the confidence and
freedom to express themselves with paint.
Till that day comes, I'm
pleased to keep reminding them!
Sonja Caywood ©2014