art education

Every child is an artist. Adults? Not so much. At some point in life, while riding the conveyor-belt that is modern education, most people get the artist-within stamped right out of them. When they are given a blank canvas and supplies, they ask, what do you want me to paint? What are the steps? The procedures? Is this good? Is this what you wanted?

Children can enjoy the process. Dipping the brush in the paint, watching forms appear. They may or may not  have a plan, but they are generally proud of their results. If you give them direction, they say, "okay, but can I do such-and-such instead?" They are natural-born creators.

Monet's "Water Lilies"

We had our first art literacy meetings of the year. Art Literacy is our school district's answer to insufficient funding for real art teachers. Parents volunteer to teach a monthly one-hour lesson. I get to help plan those lessons and train the parents. We begin this year with Claude Monet, who saw the mottled light in every outdoor scene and strove to depict it with short, dabbed brush strokes. The kids get to see slides of his art, then try their own little Monet project. They dip a Qtip into liquid starch, then into powdered pigment, then dab it onto watercolor paper. They create a painting out of little dabs.

These kids are six! Isn't their art wonderful?

I am no artist but I love teaching art to the children. And the adults. My experience with training adults is that they pay close attention to the directions, ask lots of questions, feel insecure about attempting projects themselves, and then often disparage their own art. BUT they also tend to feel the sheer pleasure of having created something. We should all resuscitate the inner-artist once in awhile!