bare bones art || shopping for art materials and ideas

National Art Education Association

Shopping for Art Materials and IdeasAuthor(s): George SzekelySource: Art Education, Vol. 47, No. 3, Bare Bones Art (May, 1994), pp. 9-17Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193471 .

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SPECIAL

Shopping for

Art Materials vand Ideas:

BY GEORGE SZEKELY

I recall the smells of newly painted walls and fresh grout in the school building where I arrived as a freshman teacher. Everything else was "on order" for my room which was soon to be filled with excited children. There were neither desks nor chairs and, of course, no art supplies. Empty space characterized that first semester, as did foraging in hallways for leftover wire, flooring, sys-

tems parts, and unusual packaging materials from nonstop deliveries. Students immediately learned and eagerly joined in the environmental shopping. I recall my roots of twenty-five years ago, praising

r,i ,w _f . in hindsight the art lessons taught to me by necessity. ^^0^'^i^^Q^ll y ~ My favorite space is an empty canvas. I love to teach art on an open dance floor which invites move-

9 A_ : w _^^ B .-l ment and invention. In an open space, students may choose to sit on the floor. The sense of openness

. ^ holds a feeling of promise. I work hard to empty my art room, despite my colleagues' early morning ~'(; ^ ^(.-,,)l~~_ *joke; "There goes Szekely, the furniture mover." Art rooms can exemplify

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space options, change, and its effects. Each piece of furniture or object when

jal- ̂ ^I^^^^^'^^^S ^-- ^ reintroduced into the room, becomes a prop to sculpt and play with. We >i_i?;ln^^^^^~ ~stack them into towns and playhouses. Private studios exist under

4ik. itables; a club house, an aquarium can be found there. Stacks S^'>'. -'/' i' ' , C 'I '.A ?of books spiral into skyscrapers, and umbrellas open into

MAY 1994 / ART EDUCATION



Shopping for ideas is inseparable from looking through drawers, pockets, pocketbooks for supplies. The independent search for one's own materials is a

necessary step in discovering one's own art.

I ART EDUCATION / MAY 1994



canopies over future cities. Newspapers can be worn as futuristic fashions, shaped into secret presents, or folded or tor into endless canvasses.

Life in a new school taught me to look for supplies, not only in art catalogs, but in the environment. New art lay everywhere, and everything had potential as an art surface or tool. I found environmental collecting was also my students' passion and exper- tise. They eagerly shared with me the "great stuff' they found on their way to class. They behaved as artists, finding and exploring their own sources- working on ceiling tiles, painting with carpet pieces, and shaping elegant insu- lation sculptures. Our materials and forms were more avant garde than the art world outside. As the new school building gave this art teacher a fresh start, so this paper may inspire other teachers to take a fresh look at what an art supply is.

EVERYTHING IS AN ART SUPPLY Hair curler erasers on Life Saver

wheels compete over toilet paper high- ways on the floor of a child's room. In playing, kids look for supplies everywhere, auditioning household objects

and considering the Left: George .

possibilities of each Szekely surrounded form. Playful hands by art materials and eyes peruse

everything as a resource, regardless of intended func- tion. This essential artistic trait needs practice. Art is a search for special finds. Shopping for ideas is inseparable from looking through drawers, pockets, pocketbooks for supplies. The independent search for one's own materials is a necessary step in discovering one's own art.

Children demonstrate daily in their home playing that slippers are space ships, and feather dusters can dance, and the environment is the largest art supply store. Art teaching can support home researchers and broaden the notion of what are art supplies at all grade levels. Children will find important items that are ignored by adults and the art world.

Feeling that we can pick supplies from everywhere, inscribe art messages on any surface, frees our art spirit. Learning that all human tools, environmental surfaces, movements, and spaces are open to creative recog- nition and interpretation leaves the world open to the serious shopping of young artists. If everything is to play with, and every tool and gesture can yield art ideas, vast new resources are open to future artists.

FINDING VERSUS BUYING SUPPLIES

As children get older, they seldom look for things with which to play or create. Why make things when you can buy them? The value of handmade objects is seldom emphasized, and students rarely see adults making their own tools, or searching for supplies. Searching for supplies broadens students' awareness of art sources beyond traditional art shopping places. Art supplies are not just specialty items, sepa- rated from other tools and objects, residing in special stores and catalogs, divided according to art media and special operations.

Could art be made without art supplies? Could we still paint without brushes? Soft leaves, bulbs, gentle moss, and a variety of twig-handled brushes can be found or made outdoors. Paper towels, cups, or left over banana peels, a glove that wandered away from its partner-all of these may

be used for painting outdoors. Not having art supplies helps us think beyond them.

What was it like to be an artist before art supplies were invented? Make believe role playing promotes ingenuity in finding and making things. Each adopted tool can be tested for art use, calling forth a range of previous experiences and history. When young artists are regularly challenged to find and make their tools, they eagerly partici- pate in setting new traditions and proudly sharing discoveries. To be the first, to be an art explorer feels daring. As with the first human to test fire, sculpt with bronze, or draw with crayons, these momentous occasions can be turned into class ceremonies, emphasizing that art invention starts before a mark is ever made on a surface. Uses for new tools are envisioned, and important copyrights are granted. Traditional art tools, however, are often taken for granted.

In society, tools used for each activity are specialized. Each business, sport, food preparation has its own supplies. The fun of being an artist is our license to test supplies in any field. Specialty tools and surfaces are fascinating to young students. We open tool boxes and brief cases to examine the possibilities inside. Found tools don't have to adhere to rules and routines of their previous life. Hand tools, arm tools, leg tools, electrified tools are all part of creative retooling for original art activities. Found tools can borrow energy and motion, new grips and moves, as they are attached to or mimic traditional tools. Everywhere we walk, we move across a possible art surface. Every tool we hold has art uses. We try to regain the freedom young children have to




browse through drawers and cup- boards and create with anything. Since the stage of adult tolerance to open shopping for children quickly passes, and only "proper" supplies become available, it is vital that the spirit of independent art search continues in the art class.

OFFICIAL SCHOOL SUPPLIES Children shape a spider's net,

manipulate a stocking run, sculpt with colorful sponges, and wear paper clip jewelry. Meanwhile, school supplies are ordered from catalogs, purchased for efficiency and value to meet the needs of the art teacher's lesson. Bulk ordered art supplies are safe, trouble free to distribute and use. Democratic dispersals involve laying the same material in uniform size, shape and color before everyone. Students in art classes typically wait to receive supplies and instructions for their "proper" use. The teacher becomes the source for material and ideas, the one most pre- pared for all lessons.

Artists need to be inspired by materials and tools, and selection is part of art making. The sameness of school materials presented in identical serv- ings is difficult to overcome. Students get used to a narrow view of art supplies; what they privately gather, save, and value outside eventually appears unrelated to art, unless the art class becomes a shopping place for supplies, and thus, ideas. The contemporary art world depends on artists who can per- sonally discover supplies and broaden supply lists. Preparation for art has to involve the important search that results in the gathering of resources.

THE HOME SUPPLY STORE A home is a more complete art sup-

ply store than a school room. There is never a shortage of materials. Players

pull out drawers and open cabinets to discover the building potential of hair curlers, or uses for the canvas of bandaids, or the painting potential of nail polish. Kids are constantly on the lookout for objects with possibilities. My daughter likes to help when I work. She patiently waits, for example, while I mount a shiny self-stick molding around our van. She carefully pockets the leftover snips, having ideas for their use.

School art rooms are usually neat and functional. Specific supplies are selected and displayed to illustrate the experience the teacher has planned. But fun things, interesting or mysteri- ous objects to arouse children's curiosi- ty, are necessary, too. My deflated crocodile (a beach toy about which my

children at home Above: Drawing tool have made up great handles legends) would not be in an art room, since it is not a direct illustration of a lesson. It is in backyards, junkyards, flea markets, and toy stores, that children's imaginations are sparked by contact with awaiting discoveries.

After kindergarten show and tell, children are seldom asked to bring supplies to school, or to look around their home in search of art class needs. In fact, most home transports to school are intercepted and only the contra- band gets in. What kids find, play with, and sometimes even risk to bring to school seldom makes the art lesson supply list. The items which get past the gate keepers are small figures and toys hidden in lunch boxes, those per- sonal carry-alls from which incredible lunchtime displays and performances can emanate.

I

ART EDUCATION / MAY 1994



We can set the stage, but we can't predict each child's encounter and fan- tasy journey with an object. Art teachers can collect at home and transport fun and interesting items to class in old trunks, hat boxes, or pocket books. Kitchens, attics, and garage shelves can be model shopping places. I borrow from bathtub studios, sandbox experi- mental sites, toy chests. The object in imaginatively stocked art rooms can be constantly rediscovered by playful explorers. Art teachers ought to pay

A tool can

become a star, a ringmaster, or an

entire circus act.

attention to how children select and save, or store home supplies, and be aware of the objects close to students' interests.

Children invent with home supplies. Ana with a terrible cold constantly ran for tissues. She fastened a necklace around her tissue box and wore it as an oversized pendant. Children's inventions may not be suitable for framing, yet they may be worn. These inventions may be brought to class for recog- nition and demonstrations of the many forms creative supplies can take.

Children decorate their objects and environment with home supplies. From school folders to shoe laces, children customize objects and treat all surfaces as a canvas. This interest in beautifying objects and spaces needs to be nur- tured in school as well as at home.

Children employ a wide variety of objects in a home to fly, parade, battle, and fantasize within adventures. The "Stapler Wars" fought at the foot of Beanbag Mountain are seldom men- tioned in world history books, but the beauty of this setting in our home was worthy of being discussed in art class. Design is learned through the arrang- ing of ponies, dolls, blocks, and sol- diers. The expression often used is "set ups" for the display of toys, street finds, or collections in special areas of the floor, in drawers, or select spaces under the table. Children transform home furnishings into forts, bases, or landing sites. School shelves, ledges, or drawers need to be open for future design- ers who will readily claim any unusual opening or surface in a room.

STARTING WITH THE CHILD Children's creative supplies are

what they save, what they wish for and play with. To find supplies, children pay attention to daily opportunities.

It has been a week of good hauling for Ana. The bonanza came from our kitchen remodeling, which she carefully monitored. The cooktop came dressed in soft, gray pads. The microwave traveled in a big box she could hardly wait to inhabit "I need this," is the simple declaration of a young artist with an idea. Their voices are not always heard, and their selec- tions are not always taken seriously by adults who only see more "junk" to store. In the art class, finds can be val- ued and plans for their development lis- tened to. With their own discoveries in hand, children will seldom say, "I can't think of anything."

I prepare for my art class by shopping around the children's rooms. This morning, I smell Bakata (sweet pota- toes) from Terra Chips. Beautiful colors of yucca, taro, parsnip chips are set up as a lovely garden on Ana's desk. In

the kitchen it is a snack; in her room it is a paint set, a special find.

I borrow for class the unusual pop- open french fry container she saved from Burger King. Some of the best finds are made in fast food places. Yet, it is often the children who help clean off trays that are praised, rather than the ones who want to save and take home everything.

Each semester our class visits a toy store on a hundred dollar (Monopoly money) budget to purchase creative supplies. Children find unlimited play opportunities in toys as they construct and design settings and environments for them. Toys are displayed as still lifes, and not-so-still animations for active plays and fantasies. The use and movement of toys inspire new art moves; their flights, races, and traces create new inspirations for art marks.

Significant occasions produce rich supply finds. Pelting rain fell as the children were dropped off from the school bus. They ran the usual shortcut beneath the oak tree to the front porch. As they reached the steps, angry sparks jumped the power line, splitting massive limbs and throwing us into twenty-eight hours of darkness. During our camping in the dark, the children found many art supplies. Rummaging through the fallen tree limbs, Ana made her pile of "best" pieces of interestingly sliced or charred wood. Some she peeled bare, exposing bone-like smoothness and shapely ivory forms. Life by candlelight inspired the shaping of dripping wax into forms of color, tint- ed with soda and juices. Foil wraps from many fast food meals were made into flashlight rims and silvery crea- tures of the dark. These storm supplies were shared with my college art class the next day as we sat in darkness on the floor around a doll house covered with tree limbs.




ENCOURAGING THE ART OF SHOPPING

My father's green, husky tool box with black taped up handles and invit- ing shelves was always fun to explore. The old box is still open for business in my art class with changing stuff inside. It shares a floor space with a used tack- le box containing glowing floats and jelly worms. My wife's old hair dryer case, filled with unusual hair curlers, sits on a red wagon among golf tees, button boxes, wooden clothes clip collections, and sample Formica from past remodelings. All of these receive a thor- ough going over by young searching hands. Flea markets start each art class. Browsing spirits indulge in fanci- ful auditioning and touching of objects. Children freely talk of objects and learn by speaking through them. There are lively trades and auctions, with items going to the best idea.

Children take special care of their collections. A multi-colored plastic jewelry tote opens to reveal many compart- ments and levels, like rooms and floors of a museum. A show of pencils with special graphics, unusual tops and erasers is curated inside. Each item was carefully selected, organized into sets, and displayed with a flair for the subject. Future artists and museum curators need such continual chal- lenges.

A 1962 purple Schwinn with white balloon tires, monogrammed seats, and rocket lights was my daughter's first big bike. She purchased it at a garage sale because she loved the dual lug- gage carrier and its oversized basket- a perfect collector's vehicle. Our daily walks are now "stop and go" as Ana fills the bike and all my pockets with things she spots while riding. At home, inven- tories are taken of all the special rocks, pine cones, bag ties, and bolts. What makes one berry or asphalt piece spe-

There is no such thing as an

ordinary art tool, or an ordinary art surface.




cial? Children have their own criteria for appraising, sizing up the feel, display possibilities or play potential of an object.

Art teachers can show they can be trusted to welcome outside finds by demonstrating their own collections and telling stories of expeditions. I begin each lesson with special items: a found object, a new flea market purchase, an ice cream shaped note pad, a crushed can, or an old pull toy. This lets children know that I am always looking and saving things to share.

Don't get stuck behind Ana at a salad bar! While long lunch-time crowds await "quick pickings," she- carefully selects each bean, placing

next to it only the best yellow corn and the prettiest carrot. No, she is not a fussy eater. For kids, a plate is a canvas, not just a place for a meal. Being allowed to select and touch and display daily choices are important art and design practices. Adults rush through stores with shopping lists. Children, however, look at everything, considering the creative possibilities of each item, in spite of many warnings, i.e.: "Put things down," "Don't touch." They teach us about artistic selection and help us recapture the fun of shopping. Looking for stuff is a full time activity for children and artists. On field trips, we invade stores and enter aisles seldom visited. New art will be found at

K-Mart, where we track new prod- ucts, amazing forms and unusual ideas. A spray handle hair brush is considered for a paint brush. White foam cooler shapes are tried as building blocks. A rolling hippo soap dish with a hundred suction cup legs and wide track tires is thought about for print-making. Art teaching is a matter of encouraging kids to choose first- hand and thus, discover their own art. Art classes need to be slowed down so that picking the "right" color, the "best" crayon, or one's favorite surface is taken seriously.

Painting made with

funnels and spring-water bottles

MAY 1994 / ART EDUCATION N Photos courtesy of Donna Kay Beattie.



FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY TOOLS AND SUPPLIES

An art tool is a magic wand! It can not only draw or paint, but be twirled as a baton, or used to conduct an orches- tra. Ask a tool to dance; hurl it into the air, or tap its feet on the ground to fol- low your "showiest" steps. A common tool can create fancier stitches than the most computerized sewing machine. Fill it with krypton, helium, or add a special power pack and climb aboard! Did you ever race a sports tool, feeling

its turns, shifting its gears, and leaving rubber on the road? Count down, rev up, and listen to the tool's sound on take off or landing. Extraordinary tal- ents can be discovered in the playful handling of art tools. Juggling, bounc- ing, and trotting can release school supplies from their usual confines and give them new roles.

Ordinary tools can be inexpensively customized by imagination. With a few props, a tool can be dressed, topped by antennas, steering wheels, or pro- pellers. With special equipment, such as remote controls and radar dishes, an

ordinary pencil can be Above: Drawing on

guided by intergalac- newspapers tic messages. A tool can become a star, a ringmaster, or an entire circus act.

Handles can be inflated, heated, reweighted, or extended for new handling. Skate with a crayon tied to the sole of your shoe, to the tip of your gloves, or the point of your fingers. Tools may be taped to drum sticks, chop sticks, ping pong rackets or rakes, or can move on stilts at a different beat


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and balance. Spin tools attached to a bike rim, umbrella tip or hula hoop; or add wheels, such as skates or skate boards. We test tools through clowning and performances, looking for marks no one has ever made before.

There is no such thing as an ordinary art tool, or an ordinary art surface. If you only have a sheet of paper, try folding elegant creases. Walk on it to see your footprints, or sit on it and pilot a magic carpet ride. Create unusual tears with your fingertips, arms, or whole body. Wrap yourself in paper; roll it out, stretching and draping it over furnishings and floors. Each new posi- tion and reshaping of the surface sug- gests different art moves. The paper can be a stage, a ring, a court, a path, or highway of action. Depending on its sloping, curving or crumpling, it can become a ski slope, a desert, or an old cave wall. Art surfaces can be flown, animated, or worn to invite appropriate art responses.

Before a mark is made, the artist prepares the canvas. How we enter, cross, perform on, and exit a canvas is determined by our preparations. We test objects in the room as stretchers. New supports for our canvas such as umbrella frames are tried. We explore unsupported free flying experiments over laundry lines and flag poles. Children's interest in wrapping presents leads them to try to wrap everything into a canvas. A canvas has endless possibilities for a young art surface inventor.

If children are invited to use all the objects and furnishings in the classroom, they have an exciting range of possibilities. Gather all the wooden rulers in class to discover an excellent erector set for exemplary architectural

framings or bridges linking tables or chairs. Miles of surfaces are available on chalkboards, corkboards, floors, and windows in each room to rehearse drawing and designing with chalks, pushpins, or water. Even the smallest supplies, such as the new striped or dayglo paper clips and rubber bands can be used to draw and build.

On a rainy day, umbrella sculptures walk into class. A gathering of lunch- boxes becomes an instant stage set, or provides a doctor's bag, magician's trunk, or a tool kit for space repair. What children wear to school on a cold day such as character gloves or snow boots can be animated, decorated, or used to perform with. The classroom is a small world in the larger world. If we learn to freely select from and rediscov- er its elements, we build artistic atti- tudes beyond the room.

Every object in a class can have many identities. For instance, a large garbage can might be tried as a tribal drum, a steam roller, or a space capsule into which to climb. Furniture can be as flexible as any play block. Chairs are mounted for horse rides, used as a throne, set up as a tour bus, or equipped with car phone, steering wheel or a soft top made of blankets. Closet doors slide open for an elevator ride or entrance to a time machine.

ENDING Endless varieties of thin and thick

points on blades of grass in a field of drawing tools. Soft marigolds, dipped in colors, have unusually moist brush handles which can be held individually or in a bouquet. I sit outside, painting nature with its own tools. The flow of colors, the streams and puddles mark- ing a surface are mine to witness as an exciting part of being a painter. Each new tool allows a different merging of colors, new lines, and shapes which

ordinary brushes could not make. During most outdoor painting sea-

sons, I come upon tools quite by acci- dent. Last summer, when our village began recycling and our trash collector no longer accepted plastic spring water containers, I discovered their art use. The jug became a pouring brush with a large reservoir of paint which could be playfully controlled by the tiny spout on the container's bottom. A newly found tool adds life to old art forms and old artists. Searches and discoveries become exciting stories to share; the adventures of a lifelong search for new art tools give insight to the artist and the artist's inventions. As I demonstrate my new painting tools to children, I credit what I have learned from them: the art of painting with bike wheels dipped in rainy day puddles, or the possibilities of painting with soft tennis balls and feather dusters.

George Szekely is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in theArt Education Area of the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY

BIBLIOGRAPHY Szekely, G. (1988). Encouraging creativity in

art lessons. New York: Teachers College Press (Columbia University).

Szekely, G. (1991). From play to art. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Education Books

Szekely, G. (1990). Outdoor playing and art. Journal, Canadian SocietyforEducation Through Art September 1990,21 (2), 4-11.

Szekely, G. (1988). Planning for the sharing of experiences and observations. Art Education 41 (3), 6-13.

Szekely, G. (1984). Shopping for creative ideas. Design forArts in Education April 6 (4), 28-35.

Szekely, G. (1992). Play, art and art teaching. ElementaryAnthology. Reston, VA: NAEA

Szekely, G. (1991). New approaches to sec- ondary school art education: A program for the artists of the future. SecondaryArt Education: An Anthology of Issues. Reston, VA: NAEA




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