Philosophy of Teaching Art: Messes, Mistakes, and Masterpieces
An art studio is a place of creativity and creation. Each artist sits before a blank canvas and has the opportunity to imagine and create a masterpiece from scratch. Creating is hard work and requires more than following artistic formulas. Rather, art is full of exploration and finding unique solutions to unique problems. Creating a masterpiece involves taking a risk and being vulnerable, making a mess and accepting mistakes. In order for an artist to feel comfortable enough to explore art they must feel a sense of safety, acceptance, positivity, freedom, and respect. My goal as an educator is to provide a space for all students to find a place in this studio.
Laurence Sterne, an Irish author, once said, “Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.” Respect is number one in my studio. It is necessary for all learning. In order to have joy and fun while working, in order to feel safe, and provide room for ultimate growth, the studio must be a respectful environment. Respect is the flowerpot, if you will, that carries each student from seed to bloom. If you respect yourself, you foster high standards and goals, which will guide you.
Working with adolescents means helping them to respect themselves in a time where self-respect and respect for others is at an all-time low. It is my passion as an educator to use art to help teens self-reflect, ask questions, investigate, imagine, and create. Respect allows students and teachers to feel supported, lifted up, encouraged, and safe. Feeing free in the studio also helps students feel the liberty to make mistakes (which is really how so much of the learning happens in art).
Of course, respect is only the environment. The next most important portion of teaching, in any subject if you ask me, is having a nutrient-rich classroom. It is vital to student growth, that I am addressing the social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs of my students through projects and conversations. Seeds need rich soil in order to have the optimum growth. While I agree that students need to learn colors, geometric shapes, and art techniques, I deem it more of a success that students mature and blossom into brighter, happier, driven, and motivated individuals with an appreciation for art.
A nutrient-rich studio looks like forming relationships with students in order to know them individually in order to teach to their unique needs. Louanne Johnson, author of, Teaching Outside The Box: How To Grab Your Students By Their Brains, talks extensively about the importance of knowing each student in order to help them succeed. This looks like pouring into each student’s life, the nutrients necessary for him or her specifically. A student with a rough home life may need a calm and relaxing adult figure in their life whereas a student who takes him or herself too seriously needs a teacher who will help them take mistakes and messes lightly and with laughter. The art studio cultivates a “garden,” not to be overly cliché, of students who can, in their own ways, create masterpieces in art and masterpieces of themselves.
The last most important thing I want to do in the art studio is to encourage creativity. Art is all about problem solving and critical thinking. Students may disregard art as an “easy” or “boring” elective, but they are learning to how to abstractly solve visual problems. They are learning highly effective ways to solve problems without knowing it. That is why I want to encourage students to be creative in their risk-taking. Make the biggest mistakes possible! Teens tend to find themselves in comparison to all their peers. The art studio is an equalizing playing field. Each student is as a different level of skill, but even though one student is highly skilled, doesn’t mean they are highly creative. Even Michelangelo said himself, “A man paints with his brains, not with his hands,” implying that no matter what our hands can produce it starts with ideation.
Encouragement can manifest itself in the shape of conversations, lessons, and feedback on art projects. During one morning in the La Colina art studio the class was working on an “upside-down drawing exercise.” At the end of the exercise students began looking at their drawing with smiles and lighthearted laughter. One girl was notably embarrassed by her drawing and mentioned that it resembled a “demented rabbit.” I asked her to show me her drawing. It did, in fact, look like a demented rabbit. Her peers laughed and she smiled with them. “What do you think Mrs. L?” she asked hopefully. I smiled and said, “well, I wouldn’t want to run into that creature in the forest alone, that’s for sure- but don’t feel bad! I think it’s really neat how your drawing turned out! You successfully captured terror in a cartoon drawing!” She was full of giggles after my comment. Her peers agreed that it looked, “cool and scary.” I reminded them all that mistakes were more fun to talk about and laugh with than if she had really nailed it the first go around. Reflectively, the students began looking at their own drawings and pointing out their mistakes and the uniqueness their flaws added to their pieces. The teen years are a wild mess of emotions, stress, hormones, and new experiences, but should be celebrated for their imagination, innovation, and willingness to try new things.
My philosophy has remained relatively the same throughout the years. I have always, first and foremost, seen teaching as a mission field in which I can help young adults grow into mature and reflective adults. Raising up a generation of tolerant students who have a solid sense of self and who have a growth mindset has always been my primary goal. Teaching art technique comes second, which is why my past and currently philosophies are not art-studio specific. As much as my philosophy has stayed the same, I believe I now have a better sense of understanding my own areas of fault. I believed I could change the world before having much time in the teaching field, whereas now I have a better (more humble) sense of how I will start small and idealistic and grow into my own teaching and learning the longer I am in the studio. I understand that some students will reject my passion for art, others will reject my kindness, and even others will reject my help. That being said, my goal is to remain constant and supportive. It also means I will be self-reflective myself and be willing to make a mess (and clean it up, too), make mistakes (and learn from them, too), and in small ways, with some students, create masterpieces of relationships, artists, and mature young adults.
As an educator, working with teens, I want to have a studio full of messes, full of students making mistakes and reflecting, and of course full of masterpieces. It would be a huge success to have students enter the studio as only newly budding plants and exit as creative, maturing, self-reflective, respectful, and lighthearted blossoms. My job will be to help foster the environment necessary for that growth, nourish the soil they are in, and encourage creativity in art. Education allows for knowledgeable adults to lead our world in the future. I believe my philosophies will only help to cultivate these kinds of adults. I hope to rise up students today who will spread and nourish seeds of their own tomorrow. The cycle goes on, and it can start with me.
An art studio is a place of creativity and creation. Each artist sits before a blank canvas and has the opportunity to imagine and create a masterpiece from scratch. Creating is hard work and requires more than following artistic formulas. Rather, art is full of exploration and finding unique solutions to unique problems. Creating a masterpiece involves taking a risk and being vulnerable, making a mess and accepting mistakes. In order for an artist to feel comfortable enough to explore art they must feel a sense of safety, acceptance, positivity, freedom, and respect. My goal as an educator is to provide a space for all students to find a place in this studio.
Laurence Sterne, an Irish author, once said, “Respect for ourselves guides our morals; respect for others guides our manners.” Respect is number one in my studio. It is necessary for all learning. In order to have joy and fun while working, in order to feel safe, and provide room for ultimate growth, the studio must be a respectful environment. Respect is the flowerpot, if you will, that carries each student from seed to bloom. If you respect yourself, you foster high standards and goals, which will guide you.
Working with adolescents means helping them to respect themselves in a time where self-respect and respect for others is at an all-time low. It is my passion as an educator to use art to help teens self-reflect, ask questions, investigate, imagine, and create. Respect allows students and teachers to feel supported, lifted up, encouraged, and safe. Feeing free in the studio also helps students feel the liberty to make mistakes (which is really how so much of the learning happens in art).
Of course, respect is only the environment. The next most important portion of teaching, in any subject if you ask me, is having a nutrient-rich classroom. It is vital to student growth, that I am addressing the social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs of my students through projects and conversations. Seeds need rich soil in order to have the optimum growth. While I agree that students need to learn colors, geometric shapes, and art techniques, I deem it more of a success that students mature and blossom into brighter, happier, driven, and motivated individuals with an appreciation for art.
A nutrient-rich studio looks like forming relationships with students in order to know them individually in order to teach to their unique needs. Louanne Johnson, author of, Teaching Outside The Box: How To Grab Your Students By Their Brains, talks extensively about the importance of knowing each student in order to help them succeed. This looks like pouring into each student’s life, the nutrients necessary for him or her specifically. A student with a rough home life may need a calm and relaxing adult figure in their life whereas a student who takes him or herself too seriously needs a teacher who will help them take mistakes and messes lightly and with laughter. The art studio cultivates a “garden,” not to be overly cliché, of students who can, in their own ways, create masterpieces in art and masterpieces of themselves.
The last most important thing I want to do in the art studio is to encourage creativity. Art is all about problem solving and critical thinking. Students may disregard art as an “easy” or “boring” elective, but they are learning to how to abstractly solve visual problems. They are learning highly effective ways to solve problems without knowing it. That is why I want to encourage students to be creative in their risk-taking. Make the biggest mistakes possible! Teens tend to find themselves in comparison to all their peers. The art studio is an equalizing playing field. Each student is as a different level of skill, but even though one student is highly skilled, doesn’t mean they are highly creative. Even Michelangelo said himself, “A man paints with his brains, not with his hands,” implying that no matter what our hands can produce it starts with ideation.
Encouragement can manifest itself in the shape of conversations, lessons, and feedback on art projects. During one morning in the La Colina art studio the class was working on an “upside-down drawing exercise.” At the end of the exercise students began looking at their drawing with smiles and lighthearted laughter. One girl was notably embarrassed by her drawing and mentioned that it resembled a “demented rabbit.” I asked her to show me her drawing. It did, in fact, look like a demented rabbit. Her peers laughed and she smiled with them. “What do you think Mrs. L?” she asked hopefully. I smiled and said, “well, I wouldn’t want to run into that creature in the forest alone, that’s for sure- but don’t feel bad! I think it’s really neat how your drawing turned out! You successfully captured terror in a cartoon drawing!” She was full of giggles after my comment. Her peers agreed that it looked, “cool and scary.” I reminded them all that mistakes were more fun to talk about and laugh with than if she had really nailed it the first go around. Reflectively, the students began looking at their own drawings and pointing out their mistakes and the uniqueness their flaws added to their pieces. The teen years are a wild mess of emotions, stress, hormones, and new experiences, but should be celebrated for their imagination, innovation, and willingness to try new things.
My philosophy has remained relatively the same throughout the years. I have always, first and foremost, seen teaching as a mission field in which I can help young adults grow into mature and reflective adults. Raising up a generation of tolerant students who have a solid sense of self and who have a growth mindset has always been my primary goal. Teaching art technique comes second, which is why my past and currently philosophies are not art-studio specific. As much as my philosophy has stayed the same, I believe I now have a better sense of understanding my own areas of fault. I believed I could change the world before having much time in the teaching field, whereas now I have a better (more humble) sense of how I will start small and idealistic and grow into my own teaching and learning the longer I am in the studio. I understand that some students will reject my passion for art, others will reject my kindness, and even others will reject my help. That being said, my goal is to remain constant and supportive. It also means I will be self-reflective myself and be willing to make a mess (and clean it up, too), make mistakes (and learn from them, too), and in small ways, with some students, create masterpieces of relationships, artists, and mature young adults.
As an educator, working with teens, I want to have a studio full of messes, full of students making mistakes and reflecting, and of course full of masterpieces. It would be a huge success to have students enter the studio as only newly budding plants and exit as creative, maturing, self-reflective, respectful, and lighthearted blossoms. My job will be to help foster the environment necessary for that growth, nourish the soil they are in, and encourage creativity in art. Education allows for knowledgeable adults to lead our world in the future. I believe my philosophies will only help to cultivate these kinds of adults. I hope to rise up students today who will spread and nourish seeds of their own tomorrow. The cycle goes on, and it can start with me.