Value of Art

Art has value as a product, a process, and as a means of expression. Creating art, as a process, helps us learn valuable lessons that can us through life.

As an art instructor I've seen students experience many "ah-ha" moments as they work through their preconceived ideas of art, their self expectations, the artistic process and the final product of their artistic endeavors.

One high school senior, when faced with the opportunity to work with acrylic paint was intrigued by the physical properties of the paint. As I helped other students work on their individual paintings I kept one eye on Jay. He never put any paint on his canvas but rather wanted to feel the paint. He used his paint brush to put a dab of green paint on his index finger. Setting the paintbrush down, he proceeded to squish the paint between his finger and his thumb. Soon he was adding blue, red and yellow to his palette. Next Jay started mixing colors and soon had the palms of his hands painted in red, yellow and green areas. I quickly grabbed a large piece of newsprint and said, "Here Jay, make prints with your hands on this paper." I smiled as I turned to help another student. When I looked back, Jay was smearing blue paint on the paper with his fingers. "I'm finger painting," he said triumphantly.
"Weren't you ever allowed to use paint before?" I asked
"No, my mom didn't want me to get my clothes dirty," he replied. "This is really fun."

I couldn't help but shake my head at how so many of us, as parents, don't realize what we are doing when we try to do our very best for our kids. Jay was so enamored by the paint that by the time class was over he had painted his arms clear up to his elbows and he had a huge smile on his face.

What was it Jay found in the process of art making? He certainly wasn't focused on the product! I never got a chance to ask Jay what he took away from the experience but I hope he connected with his natural curiosity and found that it was fun. I'm glad we could provide Jay with a safe environment with which to gain his experience and I hope he uses his natural curiosity in his work as an adult.

Kaylee, an 11 year old, came to me as quite a perfectionist. Everything had to be in its place and it had to be the same place every time. This concept is not completely foreign to me but I'm happy if I can just find a place to put things in a somewhat organized fashion.

I remember attending a women's fair once in northern California where the key not speaker asked, "how many of you have a junk drawer at home?" The entire audience of women all raised our hands.
"How many of you have more than one junk drawer?" We all looked around while many of us sheepishly put our hands up.
"How many of you have more than two junk drawers?" Hands continued to go up, one of which was mine.
"Don't worry," she said, "creative people have multiple junk drawers. In fact, I'm so creative I never have to put anything back in the same place twice."

Well, Kaylee was raised differently. I have no intention of undoing her good upbringing but she did share an insight with us after class this week.

"Remember when I made a glob of wax on my dolphins? I was upset because I had spilled my wax but you told me it looked like the dolphin was blowing a bubble. Now I like it. I learned that it is just like life. You might make a mistake but you have to just keep going and make the best of it that you can."

Wow, such profound thought out of a such a young person. What an important lesson for someone who is very hard on herself. Perhaps she will relax when her brother makes mistakes too!