teaching real art making

National Art Education Association

Teaching Real Art MakingAuthor(s): Teresa RobertsSource: Art Education, Vol. 58, No. 2 (Mar., 2005), pp. 40-45Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27696064 .

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The

importance of teaching students to make real art?art with

meaning?can be introduced by the following story.

An art dealer (this story is authentic) bought a canvas signed "Picasso" and traveled all the way to Cannes to discover whether

it was genuine. Picasso was working in his studio. He cast a single look at the canvas and said: "It's a fake." A few months later the

dealer bought another canvas signed Picasso. Again he traveled

to Cannes and again Picasso, after a single glance, grunted: "It's a

fake." "But cher ma?tre," expostulated the dealer, "it so happens

that I saw you working on this very picture several years ago."

Picasso shrugged: "I often paint fakes." (Koestler, 1964, p.82).

BY TERESA ROBERTS

As a committed teacher of studio art, one of my goals is to encourage my students to create not fakes, but real art. Real art I define as any work of art that is the result of a sensitive individual's

experience of and response to his or her life expressed through a particular

medium. Real art can be, but does not have to be, entirely original: however, it must involve some kind of creative

thought. And real art must be genuine. It must have meaning and be more than an exhibition of technical skill, an exercise in formal choices, or an exploration of

media. Real art must have content related to the artist's own interests and

experiences and/or arise from the artist's

personal involvement with human issues and conceptual concerns. Perhaps, in the

40 ART EDUCATION / MARCH 2005



above story, Picasso was just making a

joke. Or perhaps he was referring to the

meaning of the artwork. If even Picasso can create fakes, how then can we

encourage our students to create real art?

How can we teach in ways that promote meaning making in art production?

Teaching students to make real art? artwork with meaning?is a problem that I have been grappling with for quite some time. I first encountered this issue as a student of art. Schooled by primary and

secondary art teachers who apparently felt that a child's artistic development was best served by benign neglect, I despaired of ever learning anything tangible about

artmaMng. My teachers seemed content to be nurturing dispensers of materials and I was left to discover what I could about art on my own. Technique, design, and content for me remained almost

entirely intuitive.

In college I fared slightly better. My art and art education professors alike focused primarily upon technical and

design concerns while politely ignoring content. Content, it seemed, played an

insignificant role in art. However, the more I learned about art, the more I

recognized that the history of art was

replete with individuals, like myself, who

experienced their lives intensely, thought deeply about all manner of things, and used their art, not just as a means of self

expression, but as a way of communi

cating their ideas and experiences to other human beings.

In the 1980s, content reappeared in the art curriculum in the form of Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE) (Fehr, 2004). As an art education student at the

time, I embraced this approach with a certain degree of relief and, later, as an art

teacher, I espoused and utilized it. Here at last was the recognition, as Manuel Barkan (1962) had suggested in the 1960s, that there was subject matter in the field of art that was important to teach. Here at last was the kind of structured approach toward art education curriculum and

materials that Elliot Eisner had been

promoting for years (Efland, 1990). And, here at last was an approach that invited me, as a teacher, to engage my students in

thinking and talking about art history, criticism, and aesthetics as well as art

production.

Recently, however, prompted by a certain passivity in my students' involve ment with art lessons, I have turned my attention to an extension of DBAE, a method that is based on the belief that art students of all ages can best learn about art by working with the same type of content that professional artists work

with?important ideas that are related to their own lives and the Uves of others, and

by using artmaking processes similar to those of professional artists (Walker, 2001). This method differs from an "after the masters" approach and from many DBAE art lessons in that students are not

encouraged merely to work with the

subject matter, techniques, or styles of adult artist models. Instead, artmaking problems are designed around big ideas?

important interdisciplinary human issues and ideas. Student artists are encouraged to make personal connections with these

big ideas and explorations of these issues become the bases of their art. The

artmaking processes of adult artists who work with similar big ideas are studied and sometimes used as models in this

approach. However, the emphasis on

individual exploration and reflection invites student artists to grapple with and

make meaning of these issues in their own Uves. This common-sense synthesis of art

education approaches suggests that it is

possible to engage students both intellec

tually and intuitively in art production. What follows is a brief examination of selected aspects of this approach, which

may prove useful to art teachers who are

also concerned with guiding their students toward making real art.

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MARCH 2005 / ART EDUCATION 41



...art classes should

not be a rehearsal for

making real art. Nor should they be technical workshops

where students learn about skills and tools that they may use later in meaningful ways. Students should be

engaged in the same

types of activities as real artists.

The Importance of Big Ideas in Classroom Artmaking Year after year I watch some of the art

lessons that I present to my public school

secondary students succeed while some of them fail. The lessons my students and I regard as successful are those in which a

majority of them gain artistic techniques and skills while making personally relevant statements. In retrospect, I have

seen that the most successful classroom

artmaking problems have been those that had a big idea?a broad, important human issue (Walker, 2001)?built into them.

Big ideas are associated with the artist's

subject matter or theme, but assume

primary importance by providing the

conceptual groundwork for artmaking. Big ideas are some of the enduring questions and principles, based on universal human experiences, which

artists and other thinkers have pondered over time. Since big ideas are not answers

or solutions but rather topics of inquiry, they can be addressed at many levels. An

example is the human desire to impose

order on nature. This big idea can lead

secondary students into widely diverse and meaningful explorations of architec ture and the design of individual dwellings or a theme park. This same big idea can lead elementary students into an exami

nation of gardens and the construction of a miniature garden or playground. Art

teachers can use big ideas to organize and

align lessons, instructional activities, artmaking problems and assessments.

(NTIEVA Newsletter, 2000, pp. 1-2) The big ideas and the exemplars chosen

for use in art lessons should be accessible to the students. While a third grader might be able to mimic Picasso and create a

"Cubist" puppet, it is doubtful that a third

grader is actually capable of working with the complex perceptual ideas that led to the development of Cubism. Such

artmaking might provide results inter

esting to adult observers, but unless the

activity is meaningful to the child, the Picasso puppet is destined to a life on the closet floor, never to be included in a

puppet show because its face "looks

funny."

In addition to a big idea, successful classroom artmaking

problems may also be enhanced by the inclusion of a strategy that

sufficiently jars or stimulates a student's

capacity for creative thought. One

example is the construction of an

artmaking problem with inconsistent or diverse elements that encourages a

synthesis of ideas. Nicholas Roukes

(1982) provides numerous strategies such as transformation, substitution, conceal

ment, and disruption. These strategies can be tied to lessons unified by a big idea. Walker (2001) provides suggestions for

practical ways to utilize such strategies in

exploring and examining a big idea.

The use of a big idea to focus artmaking on content is paramount. With this focus on relevant content, my students estab

lished personal connections and created

meaningful artwork they considered to be successful.

In thinking about the importance of big ideas in classroom artmaking, it is partic

ularly illuminating for me to reflect upon Manuel Barkan's (1962) insistence "that artistic activity anywhere is the same,




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*sS~~~~~~~~~~~ISe~:i whether at the frontier of art or in a third

grade classroom" (p. 14). This means, among other things, that art classes should not be a rehearsal for making real art. Nor should they be technical

workshops where students learn about

skills and tools that they may use later in

meaningful ways. Students should be

engaged in the same types of activities as real artists. As George Szekely so aptly puts it, "Whose art is this, anyway?... If artistic search, inspiration, decision

making, moments of discovery, collection, and rehearsal are omitted, how will the students' art have any personal relevance?" (Little, 1990, p. 225). And if it has no personal relevance, how can

student artwork mean anything to either its creator or its viewers? How can it be real art?

As the only art expert many students will ever know, an art teacher must be

knowledgeable about the artistic

processes and the working procedures of artists. Armed with this knowledge, teachers can set about creating classroom

environments that encourage students to work as artists work and thereby make it easier to learn about art.

A Teacher's Ability to

Conceptualize the Artmaking Process Can Enhance Classroom Communication and Artmaking Problem Construction

Although most art teachers are familiar with the artmaking process on an experi ential level and some have even studied the act of creation on a cognitive level, the

importance of naming the specific parts and attributes of the artmaking process

may come as a revelation. Similarly, Helen

Keller was thoroughly acquainted with water and understood its uses and value, but gained a certain power in learning its name. It is one thing to have an intuitive

knowledge of something, it is quite another to be able to conceptualize it.

With conceptualization comes the

ability to think consciously about an idea and to apply this thinking in situations where one might otherwise have waited for circumstance or intuitive insight. And with naming comes the ability to commu nicate one's thinking to others. Art teachers benefit from a conceptual knowledge of the artmaking process.

One way to gain such conceptual knowledge is to study the artmaking practices of professional artists?artists

of the past and contemporary artists. David Galenson (2001) provides insight into the working methods of more than 100 painters from the late 19th through late 20th centuries, and a wealth of infor

mation about contemporary artists is available on the Internet. The working practices of these artists, regardless of differences in their individual artistic

styles or works, are strikingly similar.

Among the practices employed by artists

during the artmaking process are risk

taking, the postponement of final

meaning, inquiry, purposeful play, and

experimentation (Walker, 2001) and can have direct application to classroom instruction.

Reconceptualizing the Artistic Problem

Reconceptualizing the artistic problem over time (Mace, 1997) is one artmaking process that can be utilized in classroom instruction. In my own work, I have

watched the artmaking problem that I started out with change over the course of a work or series of works. I have seen the

meaning of the work change while I

proceed, unfolding as a normal part of the creative process. I have also seen this

happen in the work of my students.




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An art teacher may suggest outrageous alternatives with

regard to the student artwork in progress in an attempt to inspire the students to probe more deeply into what they are trying to say.

When an art student experiences these

surprising changes in direction or

meaning, the encouragement that an informed art teacher can provide is invaluable. Armed with a conceptual knowledge of the art process, a teacher can confidently explain to students that continual exploration, reformulation, and

problem solving are inherent parts of the

artmaking process. A teacher can

encourage a student to follow a direction or idea as it presents itself, even though this may seem contrary to procedures and

methods of thinking that she encounters in other areas of school. Thus, conceptual awareness of the artmaking process can

enhance the level of communication at an art teacher's disposal for both teaching and artmaking.

In 2003,1 attended a summer workshop at The Ohio State University. In creating a

postcard series on the big idea of place at the workshop, I experienced a reconcep tualizing of the artistic problem. I began the series with specific ideas about a

place, the Washington National Cathedral.

I wanted to show the transcendent nature of the cathedral's grand architecture and rich detailed ornamentation. At the end of each day's class, I intuitively chose an

image and an appropriate medium and worked more or less realistically, as suited my inclination. I addressed the cards to a friend, and wrote as if I was lost in the cathedral. I used this process as a

metaphor for my experiences in the class. On the third day I realized that on a

deeper level, the metaphor also addressed the search for meaning in life. As a result of this reconceptualization, I readdressed the cards to the occupant of the cathedral,

made revisions, and more consciously

incorporated additional layers of

meaning.

Artmaking Problem Construction and Conceptual Strategies

The construction of artmaking problems is another example where

conceptualizing aspects of the artistic

process has significance. When working




with students, an art teacher may suggest

outrageous alternatives with regard to the student artwork in progress in an attempt to inspire the students to probe more

deeply into what they are trying to say. Recognizing these attempts to promote clarity as the conceptual strategies of

disruption and opposition (Walker, 2001) may enable an art teacher to apply them

more consciously, both in consulting with students and in planning lessons.

Encouraging Active Reflection During Artistic Creation

Learning about the reflexive transfor

mative nature of the artmaking process

(Mace, 1997) and the importance of

avoiding premature solutions (McCarthy and Sherlock, 2001) may also expand one's awareness of the artistic process.

Sometimes, I envision images with

enough clarity and strength that I must

give them life in the material world.

Usually, these images are embodiments of

ideas or issues that I have been wrestling with over a period of time. At this point the artistic problem becomes technical.

How can I use an artistic medium to make

this image? At other times, the beginning and

direction are more vague. Perhaps because I am a secondary art teacher and

my artmaking time is limited, I am less inclined to embark upon these vague and

ambiguous journeys. Mace (1997), McCarthy and Sherlock (2001), and Walker (2001) have reawakened my awareness of the importance of conscious

exploration in artmaking. Their writing has given me courage to set out upon

uncertain artmaking journeys. I have also

gained a greater understanding of the

necessity of encouraging my students to embark for the unknown and to write

postcards?to reflect upon their own

artmaking process?along the way. An

important instructional strategy to aid students in the development of

meaningful inquiry and creation in

artmaking is the requirement of active reflection during and after the creation of artworks (Walker, 2003).

Conclusion In the maze of curriculum considera

tions, content standards, and measurable

outcomes that chart the course of a public school teacher's day, it is easy to lose track of the value of artmaking as inquiry and exploration of important human and

social issues and aesthetic concerns.

Artmaking, especially when translated to

pedagogical practice, can and should be an exploration of big ideas about self, others, nature and the universe as well as

an exploration of forms and media.

Ultimately, if teachers are avid and enthusiastic explorers of personal, social,

and aesthetic issues, approach art making with both intellect and intuition, and

encourage students to do the same, we

will all engage in making real art?art that is rich with meaning.

Teresa Roberts is an art teacher at

Northern Garrett High School in

Accident, Maryland. E-mail:

trob5@verizon. net

REFERENCES Bar kan, M. (1962). Transitions in art education:

Changing conceptions of curriculum

content and teaching. Art Education.

15(7), 12-18.

Beyond creating: The place for art in

Americas schools. (1985). Los Angeles, CA:

The J.Paul Getty Trust.

NTIEVA (North Texas Institute for Educators

on the Visual Arts) Newsletter (2000).

Developing art centered units of study.

12(12), 1 and 2. Retrieved online, October

25, 2004: http://www.art.unt.edu/ ntieva/news/vol_12/no_2/index.htm.

Efland, A. (1990). A history of art education:

Intellectual and social currents in

teaching the visual arts. New York:

Teachers College Press.

Efland, A. (2002). Art and cognition. New

York: Teachers College Press.

Fehr, D. (2004). Dogs playing cards:

Powerbrokers of prejudice in education,

art, and culture. New York: Peter Lang

Publishing, http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/fehr/

Galenson, D. (2001). Painting outside the

lines: Patterns of creativity in modern

art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Hunter, M. (1982). Mastery teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Koestler, A. (1964). The act of creation. New

York: The Macmillan Company.

Little, B., Ed. (1990). Secondary art education:

An anthology of issues. Reston, VA: The

National Art Education Association.

McCarthy, P., & Sherlock, G. (2001). Drawing: An image-making approach, Journal of Art

and Design Education, 20 (3), 346-348.

Mace, M. (1997). Toward an understanding of .

creativity through a qualitative appraisal of

contemporary art making. Creativity

Journal, 10(2 and 3) 265-278.

Roukes, N. (1982). Art synectics. Calgary: Juniro Arts Publications.

Walker, S. (2001). Teaching meaning in

artmaking. Worcester, MA: Davis

Publications.

Walker, S. (2003). What more can you ask?

Artmaking and inquiry. Art Education,

56(5), 6-12.

POSITION OPENING Arkansas State University Position: Assistant Professor, Art Education, full time, Tenure track

Responsibilities: Teach art education courses, advise students, serve on both

Art Department and College of Education committees, teach other courses as

needed, promote graduate program.

Qualifications: Earned Doctorate in Art Education or Art History (ABD consid

ered) or MFA in Art. Three or more years of experience teaching K-12 required. Publications/presentations or exhibitions required. Expertise in a studio area,

graphic design or art history desirable. DBAE knowledge. Arkansas State University is located in Jonesboro, 65 miles northwest of Memphis, TN. The Department of Art, withing the College of Fine Arts, has 13 full time faculty members. Minorities are

encouraged to apply.

Application: Send letter of application, vita, phone number, your e-mail address

and phone number, and e-mail addresses

of three or more references, transcripts,

teaching philosophy, evidence of scholarly and/or artistic research, SASE to: Gayle Pendergrass, Art Ed. Search Chair, Department of Art, P.O. Box 1920. State University, AR 72467




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