planning for the sharing of experiences and observations

National Art Education Association

Planning for the Sharing of Experiences and ObservationsAuthor(s): George SzekelySource: Art Education, Vol. 41, No. 3 (May, 1988), pp. 6-13Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193095 .

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Planning for the Sharing of Experiences and Observations George Szekely

Irecently completed a year of photographing Staten Island, a borough of New York City, focusing on its architecture and environment. I was fascinated by the sculptural variety of the

architecture and its material detail. When asked to exhibit these photographs in a New York City museum, I felt compelled to include the collection of bricks, stones, and wood I had gathered as souvenirs of my experience. It seemed important to remind the audience of the reality from which the photographs were drawn. The photographs were interesting graphic illustrations of my subjects but did not capture my original experience of them in their material and sculptural richness. Through the selective process common to the creation of all art - through the choice of camera angle and lighting, the degree of development used to produce the flat black-and-white surfaces, the type of frame used to present the final work - a new reality was produced. The photographs had taken on a life of their own, with a design, order, and meaning apart from the buildings and other subjects they represented.

Art is an abstraction derived from real experience. Similarly, art teaching is generally a translation of the

art teacher's experiences, which are not themselves presented. In fact, the final product often seems to have nothing at all to do with the original experience. Specific materials are introduced, but not the excitement of discovering a beautiful surface whose image we want to preserve; specific techniques are revealed, but not an understanding of how experiences were translated into the given art problem; specific concepts are handed down like formulas, but not the means of making a child's experiences of the environment more meaningful. But how can we preserve our most meaningful experiences for our students? How can we com- municate to them the richness of the world around them, the joy of observation and discovery as it prods our imagination? The original experience that inspired us needs to be grabbed from that moment and pulled into class, to be revealed fully to the students.

Teachers can preserve this experience by bringing their visual finds to class immediately. The discoveries, observations, experiences, interests that have prompted our ideas need to be presented to our students in full, even if they do not seem immediately relevant to the lesson at hand. In fact, art instruction is not so much a matter of planning a lesson for students to follow as showing them how the idea for each art lesson has evolved. By serving as a living example of the visually alert artist in the process of discovery, the art teacher teaches them the importance of artistic awareness. The art lesson becomes an extension of the art teacher's search for ideas.

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I remember how, as an art student, we were all drunk with seeing. We pointed out to one another all the wonderful, outrageous, and unusual sights of the city. We found beauty in everything; collected anything that was interesting or unusual; and attended all kinds of events, from parades to circuses, which excited us anew since we had begun to look at them as artists. It was as if we had just learned to see, and this attitude sparked works that flowed from us with the same excitement of discovery and joy in what was beautiful that we felt when observing the world. It was so grati- fying to be around people who could share my excitement in seeing and could challenge it further.

As a young art teacher, I wanted to sustain this excitement. I began bringing to class all kinds of discoveries whether they were related to the lesson or not. My sole criterion was to present something beautiful to the children each day. Soon they began to look forward to my presentations and responded by bringing in a wealth of their own discoveries. I then decided always to allow myself the freedom to spon- taneously bring to class anything of interest - not just objects but experiences and visions I found exciting - and to do so immediately instead of saving it for a time when it would fit into a lesson as an illustration of some skill or technique. After all, everything beautiful can inspire, and it is not only difficult but unnecessary to predict what will inspire a group of children. Thus, I remember receiving a new set of sheets and pillowcases as an anniversary present. I signed for the package, but before my wife had a chance to see the gift, off it went to school. I loved the set and wanted to share it with my class immediately. Laundry lines were set up in the art room, and I began the class by hanging up my sheets and pillowcases. These beautifully printed items inspired a discussion about patterns, printing, and tex- tile design. At about the same time, we moved into our first home; and on the first night, we felt drops of rain

"Art is an abstraction derived from real experience."

Art Education/May 1988 7



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through the roof. During the emergency period of having the roof replaced, I stopped the process long enough to bring to class the salesman's sample book of shingles so that I could discuss with my students the real problem as I saw it: not the leak but the urgent need to introduce a new color and texture to an important architectural aspect of our home. So that students' discussions and decisions would be accurately focused, I judiciously transported to the classroom a few bricks left over from building the house and some dried-out paint cans that revealed the color of its trimmings. I wanted the students to see the choice of color for the house as an artistic choice, the plans of the home as just another canvas, and the home itself as a piece of sculpture whose new covering of color and texture was an important consideration. Above all, I wanted them to understand that the choice was an important one to

me; it was not just a matter of settling for the cheapest or the fastest means of repair but, as an art teacher, of regarding every element of my visual world as a central concern.

Daily living offers us many visual experiences, finds, and choices to bring to the students' attention. They are thereby able to learn that the selection, arrangement, and display of ordinary objects is very much related to the selection, arrangement, and display of works of art. Simple acts like selecting clothes to wear, designing or altering a room arrangement, or even shopping for food, greeting cards, and so forth can from time to time lead to an exciting discovery about packaging, labeling, or display. To deliver this experience completely to our students, we need to consider how the range of possibilities encompassing our choice or find can be presented to them, for we not only want to share with the class our own discovery but by examining related possibilities, to show students how they can extend these possibilities and make their own finds. We need to present the complete situation to the student - the variety of choices inspired by the event - so that they can make their own choices. For example, I was really excited about a new tie I received for my birthday and the following day had the pleasurable experience of determining which shirt would best bring out the new garment's yellow tones and glow. In wanting to share this experience with my students, I proceeded to pack all my shirts and bring them to class. Students were able to see my choices and, as they matched color, pattern, and style, to consider making the choice themselves. Similarly, when I went to fill my latest prescription for my eyeglasses, my wife and I disagreed over the choice of frames, and so I brought the problem to the attention of my students. I was pleased to discover the wide variety of innovative styles and borrowed a catalog to illustrate some of them to my class. I also brought to class all my old frames, which I had faithfully kept, some antique

"We spent the period . . sketching different faces with

different frames to discover how the shape of each affects the other. We talked about the design of glasses as an art

form . . ."




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"Teachers should keep in touch with their students' interests

through children's books, television programs, toys, science fic-

tion magazines, computer games, and so forth."

frames from a collection of mine, and some other examples of frames culled from an old Sears catalog. In addition, using loose wire, I fashioned several new sets of frames whose shapes were different from what I had on hand. We spent the period discussing possibilities, trying on the different samples, and sketching different faces with different frames to discover how the shape of each affects the other. We talked about the design of glasses as an art form and broadened our discussion to other face coverings, such as veils, safety goggles, disguises, and masks.

Thus, common experiences yield uncommon inspiration. The point in presenting an everyday object to students is not to have them look at it in terms of its function but to consider what is beautiful or interesting about it. I recall finding an interesting red plastic form in a store and upon bringing it to the cashier to pay for it, discovering that the price was not marked. The cashier, trying to determine what department it came from, asked me what it was, to which I innocently replied that I had no idea. The next, very embarrassing question was what it was used for. I said I didn't know. I do know what all those plastic fishing worms in my collection, often shared with students, are for,

though I would have no idea how to use them as I have never fished in my life. And it is not flavor but shape that has inspired my potato chip and candy box collec- tions. By encouraging students to seek out what is aesthetically appealing in an object, no matter what its purpose, we are encouraging them to look at the world around them as artists.

Teachers often think that to inspire their students, they should present to them the works of masters. But first-rate paintings and drawings are available only through reproductions, which are not very revealing. It is far better to show them examples of exceptional design works, which can often be presented in their original form to the class. In many design areas - areas that encompass such items as sheets, ties, and




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Photo by Phil Dunn

eyeglasses - contributions from top designers are readily available. Since many stores have a liberal re- fund policy, it is relatively easy to buy and return items that we want to present to class (for the sake of art). Catalogs, sample books, or actual samples can also be borrowed for class use. These finds can be as inspiring as the greatest works.

What we create, select, or display through formal art media is directly related to how we experience, react to, and control our immediate environment. It is therefore important that lart teachers provide their students with the richest environment possible by constantly bringing to their attention the best examples they can find of what is beautiful and interesting and hence inspiring. Too often, however, the examples used in art classes are not the most inspiring or carefully

"Students learn to search - to look everywhere, to consider every as-

pect of the environment with excitement.. "

selected but simply what is most readily available. And teachers' experiences, observations, and discoveries should be presented often, because art classes are for the most part planned in advance, with pre-selected materials that limit the student's choice. The frequent and spontaneous presentation of objects and experiences not immediately related to the classroom lesson will give the student greater choice.

By discovering art and beautiful objects among the ordinary and defining the connection between the gathering of visual ideas in every form and creating one's artwork, the teacher serves as a model to his or her students. The students can look up to their teacher as someone aware and alert who is constantly searching for ideas. Students learn how to search - to look everywhere, to consider every aspect of the environment with excitement instead of waiting for ideas to be handed to them - how to extend ideas through addi- tional finds, how to sort through a large display of, say, artworks, cards, or supermarket labels to find the best, the most exciting possibility. Thus, students can see by the teacher's example, not that art exists in everything but that it could exist anywhere and in any form. It must simply be found out.

With the teacher as model, students begin to realize that art is an important part of life. Art and life are connected. Visually informed decisions have to be made time and again in a variety of real-life situations, some so routine that we don't think of them as visual choices. Students begin to recognize, say, the importance of discovering color ideas and making color choices. I have demonstrated this to students by displaying to them my collection of Fiestaware, brightly colored dishes of the 1940's. Setting a table with Fiestaware is seldom an ordinary task since many bright colors are available to mix and match. When students do this, they discover a variety of possible col- or combinations and how these combinations - coor- dinated or not - can reflect a variety of moods.

A great variety of everyday objects can teach students such concepts, but it is best to place art at the center of their lives and concerns. Such concerns could include dressing a Barbie doll, furnishing a doll house, or providing Lego designs. Teachers should keep in touch with their students' interests through children's books, television programs, toys, science fiction magazines, computer games, and so forth. Favorite foods like candy, bubble gum, and ice cream can be




the basis for drawings, with children painting make- believe flavors or observing the changing shapes of a favorite dessert as it is being eaten. The drawing materials of children's art and the artworks that they invent on their own can provide us with some truly remarkable finds. My daughter's recent works are made out of such diverse materials as bubble gum, shaving cream, pencil shavings, and bottle tops, put together in a variety of unconventional ways - by at- taching them to ribbons to make long strips of artworks, for instance. Works like these make us aware of children's interests while suggesting ideas that can be followed up in school art. We can then make complete use of these interests in presenting our finds in class. Teachers may even find their interests coinciding with those of the children. Once when I brought to class a collection of my truck mirrors, found at various highway truck stops, a student responded by bringing in his own collection of shiny objects. Other times children's interests will diverge from our own. The art teacher needs always to try to discover what experiences will appeal to children.

If teachers are models to their students, it is to demonstrate not just that ideas for artworks could be found anywhere but that they could be found at any time. Thus, students need to be aware all the time. I demonstrated this to my students the week I accom- panied my wife to the labor room when we were expec- ting the arrival of our third child. While participating in the breathing exercises and otherwise assisting, I became interested in the labor room's contents and

especially excited by the tape of graph paper and the mechanical drawing tools used to record the baby's heart beats and my wife's contractions. I also noted a blue padded sheet that the nurse put on the bed, which matched the disposable paper masks that I had already collected to show my class. With all the confusion, excitement, and activities of the week, I still carried on with my son's birthday party. It was the ultimate Star Wars event, complete with a Star Wars' cake, tablecloth, napkins, cups, and hats. Upon returning to class the following week, I appeared fully dressed in my mask with a stack of hospital bluepads under my arm, the operating-room shoe covers whose design I had found so interesting on my feet, and a roll of tapes from the fetal monitor in hand. Upon entering, I began setting up all the items from my son's birthday party on a center table as the class watched the party being recreated. I entitled my lecture "I did not forget about you" - meaning the class. I went on to explain to my future teachers that even through this memorable but hectic week in my life I did not forget about art or art teaching. In fact, because of the excitement of the events, of the unfamiliar places such as the labor room, my creative senses were even more alive, and consequently I was all the more ready to consider art lessons and artworks. The class went on to use the sparklers, balloons, bubbles, and confetti from the birthday party as the subject of the artworks we painted. In a subsequent lesson, I recalled for the class how the doctors had carried around a white patient folder with long strips of electrocardiogram tapes clip- ped inside and how when our own physician walked in, somehow the long strips of tape were gently unfolding and hanging out from his folder. The sight of these mechanical drawings hanging from the white folder stayed with me, and I proceeded to explore a whole series of "folder drawings" using a folder with long white strips of paper on which I executed my drawings. I brought to class ten of these folder drawings and


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"We talked about . . thepossibil- ity of doing drawing in contain-

ers .. " related to the students the event in the hospital room that had inspired them. We talked about ways to package such drawings using envelopes, trays, bags, or pockets and the possibility of doing drawings in containers, which lead to the students collecting their own containers on which to draw, I tried to give an assign- ment that not only copied my experience but also il- luminated its source so that broader concepts could be ascertained.

The important resource for art is life in both its ex- traordinary and ordinary events, and planning for both the artist and the art teacher means their being con- tinually aware of the world around them. When plan,- ning is approached as a Sunday night exercise for the week, with the hope that inspiration will come, the lesson is generally uninspired and repetitive. Therefore, as teachers we need to be willing not only to bring in our reactions and comments and observations but also to be open at all times to new experiences that might inspire our students. Planning is a full-time job.

When we share our artistic find with students, the lesson is obviously very personal. We show them how we get excited by all sorts of surfaces, tools, and visual phenomena. We show them examples from our per-

sonal collection. We show them our own works and where they came from, generalizing from these works so that students will be inspired to pursue works of their own; indeed, the progression of our own work is perhaps the best teaching tool available to us. And we show them our interests, which is a very important aspect of art instruction.

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"Discoveries come . . .only in sponse to the student's experienc

Upon returning from a recent trip to New York City, I announced to my art class that I was in love. They were surprised and very curious to learn the object of my affection. I explained to them that I was in love with a wonderful older woman I met the preceding summer through a book I had bought at a flea market. The book I found and cherished all summer contained the works of a sculptor named Louise Bourgeois. I kept it in the supply cart I toted around with me over the hills of upstate New York where I was painting. In

V,' moments of uncertainty, Louise's work gave me great inspiration. I met Louise a second time on my trip to New York when I went to the Museum of Modern Art

IllL ~ and was pleasantly surprised to discover a retrospective exhibit of her work. The show was magnificent, and I came home with many sketches, two new books, and a head swollen with images and ideas. I could not wait to

i re- get back to my studio and my class so that I could con- ,es " front my work again, spurred on by the inspiration

provided by this show. My first concern was for my


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own work. Being a painter, I was interested in translating into painting concepts that interested me, the ideas that were originally presented by Louise as sculpture. My other concern was how I could bring this experience, excitement, and awakening in my own life to the attention of my students. I needed to let them know how involved I had become simply by having her book around all summer, how I always felt that her spirit and inspiration were with me.

Once we find an artist that we like, we need to com- municate our interest to our students in order to teach them how to learn from other artists. This is not simply a matter of copying but of coming to understand their images and using them to inspire our own artworks. The more I began to understand Louise, I told my students, the more I began to see her subtle messages and the more her work became mine, changing forever. I then showed them books of African carv- ings and Eskimo artifacts, which were a part of my in- vestigation of what she was doing. Throughout the weeks of intensive study, I talked about Louise each day in class. The students were completely submerged in study of her work, and each day brought a new discovery, a fresh insight.

Thus, one way to preserve for students our original experiences is to share with them our artistic interests, to disclose the artistic process by showing how we are inspired and how we follow up our inspirations. It is not just a matter of teaching art appreciation but of communicating our own involvement with artists we like and learning from their ideas and messages. Students need to understand that while they have an art teacher in school, they need to have many other teachers, to be apprenticed to other artists they themselves may find to admire. When they leave school, they will need to have already developed the habit of looking for answers in the works of other artists who inspire them.

Teachers may show their class the source of their ideas for plans and projects, but the aim of such in-

struction is ultimately to have students seek out such experiences themselves. Discoveries come, not from repeating even the cleverest of the teacher's choices, but only in response to the student's own experiences. Students therefore need to be encouraged to go out and make their own finds. I'm often asked by students, "Professor, I am going to a parade (or party or circus). Could you give me some suggestions on what to look for?" What is important, of course, is for students to find things by themselves, to pose their own problems. The best technical and creative advice is not useful if students don't know how to do these things for themselves. We can share with students our moments of inspiration, our finds. We can show them by our examples how to look. But we can't tell them what to look for or what to look at. This, under our guidance, is what students need to learn on their own. D

George Szekely is Area Head and Associate Professor of Art Education at the University of Kentucky, Lexington.

Bibliography

1. Galloway, C. (1976). Silent Language in the Classroom. Bloom- ington, Indiana: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.

2. Jarrett, J. L. (1981). Values through the arts. Art Education, 34 (2), 6-12.

3. King, M. Informal Learning. Bloomington, Indiana: Phi Delta Kappa Education Foundation.

4. Plummer, G. A. (1975) The art teacher as cultural exemplar. Art Teacher, 5(2), 12-14.

5. Szekely, G. (1988). Encouraging Creativity in Art Lessons. New York, N.Y.: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

6. Zurmuehlen, M. (1981) How art gives meaning to experience. Art Education, 34(4), 24-28.


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