HAVE you ever seen kids paint? They are fearless. They launch into the paint with gusto, with abandon, and fill that blank page with big, bold strokes. It’s as if white is their enemy, and must be dominated by shades of blue, magenta and blood red. Or in my girls’ case, pink (for Angelica) and black (for Lauren). My girls love painting so much sometimes I feel a bit of a fraud egging them on. Because I don’t have good memories of art growing up.
In secondary school, I would go so far as to call the subject a farce. For one 40-minute period a week, we were “taught” art, which meant being given a topic in class, then allowed to spend the entire 40 minutes NOT doing art. We would then go off to art tuition on the weekend to “finish” the art homework.
By finishing, I meant my tuition teacher would let me copy and reproduce something along the lines of the homework topic. That wasn’t even the best part.
For the art paper during SRP (now PMR), we were given the topic months in advance to “prepare”. So off everyone went to her respective art tuition and to rehearse for the exam. Over weeks, we would do nothing but practise drawing and painting our given subject. Come exam day, all we had to do was replicate what we’d be doing for the past few weeks.
You see, we’d been trained to beat an ineffective system. Which didn’t exactly make us winners.
Therefore, art had never been the liberating medium of self-expression that it was meant to be. To me, art was stressful and difficult, beating down my confidence and confirming my fear that I would never be creator, only follower.
That is, until my kids came along and opened up a whole new world to me. It was fascinating seeing the world through their eyes. They would paint a blob and tell me grand stories from that single blob. Or used so much paint that they soaked through the paper, because that particular spot had to be “very, very pink!” When they stumbled upon the interesting world of paper and glue, they did nothing but collages for weeks.
As they discover the different aspects of art, I learn, too. It’s impossible not to! They take on each new material with such spontaneity and acceptance ... and I begin to wonder if perhaps it wasn’t so hard after all. My kids started out working with finger paints and sidewalk chalk. Then I introduced poster and tempera paints. On days when I didn’t feel like cleaning up, out came the oil pastel crayons, colour pencils and Sharpie pens.
I have conversations with my kids about art, usually when they’re doing it. Nothing mind-blowing, but rather, things like: “Is the blue trying to eat the red?”, “Hey, that blob looks like someone’s butt”, “Wow, today’s yellow is brighter than yesterday’s!”. You get the idea. By talking about what they do, it helps them to think about what they’re doing.
I will continue in this vein for as long as my kids let me, but I also realise as they grow older, I would like them to learn about the technical aspects of art. There has to be a balance between freedom and structure. Freedom in the sense of self-expression and the use of mediums and colour. Structure in the form of technical skills – drawing, painting, sketching, and later, if they choose, sculpting and more.
This is where I hit a brick wall. Searching for art classes for Angelica, five, I find them failing my checklist. I don’t like the idea of classes where kids go in with the end product already pre-determined, which is how most of the arts and crafts classes are conducted.
Nor do I like classes where the teachers tell them how and what to draw/colour/paint. It is usually more about showing parents what the kids have achieved in the last hour, rather than focusing on the process of creation for the kids.
I believe kids should be allowed to experiment with materials and methods and arrive at the end of the journey not with a finished product, but an increased knowledge of what brought them there.
Already, our school system is imparting kids with a sense of learned helplessness. This means the instance of children who give up trying to achieve something, because they’ve started to believe they cannot influence outcomes.
Therefore, it was either go with the flow or face failure and criticism. This is the treacherous ground treaded on by a system of rote learning and spoon-feeding, but that is a discourse for another day.
It would be a tragedy if our kids also learn helplessness in art, which characterises my own experience in art education. In fact, if done the right way, the process of making art involves reflection, experimentation, decision-making, visual-spatial skills and self-criticism.
The artist engaged in the creative process is perpetually honing his problem-solving skills and making discoveries, encouraging autonomy and boosting self-esteem. When you look at it that way, art is the perfect way to counteract learned helplessness!
Remember, the little artists we nurture today will be the artistic creators/innovators and leaders of tomorrow, who will be well trained to improve the world they inherit from us.
In my next column in a fortnight, I’d like to present my “art manifesto” for the children in this country. Watch this space.
The writer thinks children and art should collide constantly and is avidly documenting her kids’ artwork on her blog www.angelolli.com (under the label ‘Art-ing’).
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