Does art have to be pretty?

What do we do when a child makes art that shocks us? How do we deal with student art that is disturbing to us?

Art is about expression which means it isn't always going to be appealing. I've seen a lot of work that made me angry or to be honest, really grossed me out. In those cases, I think that may have been the artist's intent. They want the viewer to step outside of what they are comfortable with and react.

It all comes down to how we define art. If it is ugly and makes us uncomfortable, is it bad art? If that were the case, Francisco Goya's Disasters of War series (depicting Napoleon's brutal war with Spain) would be meaningless. Art has a purpose and to say that good art has to be pretty negates half of one's ability to express. Not everything we need to express is pretty, so why then do people expect only beauty in art?

I don't have an answer to this but that mentality makes me very uncomfortable. I am not an expert in art therapy by any stretch of the imagination but it strikes me as destructive to tell children that their art can only be pretty.

I've read a number of articles about people working with victims of trauma who have experienced things so horrific they can't bear to speak of them but they could still draw. I think allowing (not making!) victims of trauma, especially children to "draw out" their experiences through art can become part of the healing process. Granted, this may be difficult for us as educators to see, but the key in this, is that it isn't about us! It is about the child needing to express their trauma.

Obviously, sensitivity is required in this. We don't want to expose other children to the trauma but we need to protect the rights of the traumatized individual as well. To tell the child they can't make the images is wrong. In my opinion this will cause the child even more trauma. But, what does one do about it? Talking with the child and giving them alternatives to art class for their drawings. Maybe in a quiet spot during quiet reading time, with a counselor (if you are lucky enough to have one in your school), with you or an administrator. The point is, you don't want to victimize the child all over again by making them feel they have done something wrong.

Of course, this is all assuming this is not the child's disclosure and the trauma is in their past. If the child discloses any sort of trauma or abuse you must follow normal laws/procedures around reporting it.

Mondrimat

So, here is a site that was recommended by Art-iculation. It is based on the artwork of Piet Mondrian and it is a really cool way for students to explore shape and space with technology (and tonnes of fun for me too!). What bothered me was that you can't seem to save what you create. If I am doing it for fun it doesn't really matter but if I am doing as a project with my students I want to be able to see it again later.

My solution? Take a screen shot (alt+ print scr) and paste (alt+ v) it into Paint (in your accessories). Once in Paint I could clip the image from the rest of the screen and save it as a jpeg.
When I do this with my class I will have them save it in their files and then I will likely print them at home on photo paper for display.

Will post my lesson when I do it. :)

Mondrimat

Art-iculation

This is a website I have found that is incredibly useful for both the experienced and inexperienced art teacher.
My rubric is very general so that I can use it for all my assignments but what happens when someone (like Admin or parents) asks you what elements you are looking for? Or how does the student know what you want?

This website has great definitions, examples and printable activities for both the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design. Using the website and the activities with each definition will help you teach the elements and principles (and in conjunction with some assignments) so that when it comes to a larger assignment or project you can assess what you have covered. I think it might be difficult to use these activities for division one (K-3) but they should be fine for division two. (Just modify how you assess according to grade level.)
We don't have to reinvent the wheel when we teach art so if it is already out there AND is good quality, use it! :)

Remember!
You can't assess the concepts if you haven't taught them!

Here is the link: Art-iculation

Finally more art lessons!

So, it is the second week of school and I have some of the same kids I had last year. So much for re-using all of my art lessons from last year! This is good thought because it is forcing me to think of some new ones too.

My first lesson was last week and I started by reading "Ish" by Peter H. Reynolds. (Also the author of "The Dot" another favorite of mine.) As always, I pointed out that if we stopped writing or reading at the age of 11 or 12 we would never get any better, so why do we think we should stop drawing at that age?
I then had students choose something in the room to draw an "ish" drawing of. I also told them if they were going to try to draw person-ish portraits they needed the person's permission/consent first. (We sometimes tend to get a bit touchy about being "ish" and it opens the door for unpleasantness in a classroom!) This all ended up taking about 45 minutes including clean up. The students were enthusiastic and even asked if they could do more than one. It was fun and the kids worked well and had a few (safe) laughs at their ishy drawings because they knew they didn't have to be realistic. In this context, they weren't afraid to draw, they just did.

This week I continued in the spirit of "Ish" and taught the lesson I have linked from Google docs.
To Doodle or Not to Doodle
We spent about 75 minutes on this lesson and a number of the students aren't quite done. The great thing is now, when the kids have any free time they are asking if they can draw or work on their art rather than fooling around! YAY!

I am planning on making a bulletin board displaying the art, so I will try to post pics soon.