我的小小天地 my little music

Whenever and whatever we take for granted, we become blind to it.
We cannot grow and learn from what we are blind to, especially when we do not even realize this blindness.
Any system of belief blinds.
Thus art is meaningful. It makes us see what most do not.

So is it thus coincidental, that the figurative and illustrative art thus gets celebrated more? Because an image that tells you precisely what it is, puts you back into the zone of clarity. A comfortable blindness perhaps?

(The title is itself a problematic analogy that I will not discuss much in this post)

It is very important that we recall how we became whatever we are today.

Every good ‘product’ came from something foolish, it came from something small, it went through prolonged process of ‘playing’, it is a result of linking countless play that had no real purpose in the beginning.

To push for any concrete idea of grandeur from the process of sheer intellect, without lived experience as reference, without structures of thoughts, without having failures as guidance, and an inward connection is an utter waste of time.

In cases of people going idea, idea, idea, concept, concept, concept, without action, this is usually one of the cause. The other cause being, simply, people don’t want to do the real stuff.

This has to change. Else this roundabout will never end. 

However in the case whereby there is something done, but lacking in concept, the latter itself is not the issue as much as whether or not, the review, tenacious inquiry, further development takes place. Without which a more meaningful learning cannot take place due to the abandonment of the real work that is set forth by the initial attempt.

School work tends to shortchange the development of the student precisely because of the above-mentioned abandonment (that takes place too early, too little done). This is what I call a curriculum-based learning. The one that truly reaches out to the student, connecting them to their true growth as an individual, is called individual (human)-based learning.

This is a response to what Wyona posted to me as question. I thought it is a valuable experience to share with all.

Hi Wyona,

Thanks for writing. I would love to see how I could help.
Below mentioned is just a possible scenario. The difficulty is in the execution, which I will pull examples from my various classes as case study later. I too face these problems at various stages.
Thanks for the questions.

__________________

The Root Cause (for 99% of the students)
The fear for drawing comes from the fear of being judged and a stigma that is already formed in their young minds. If we were to trace back on the history of those students (those with that fear), we would find somewhere, someone, sometime, passed him/her an unkind remark of “you can’t draw”, ” you are not good at art”, “art is useless”, “you are not talented” and etc of the same nature.

The Main Qualities of the Individual to Address
confidence
curiosity
playfulness
expressivity
emotional control

The Unorthodox Way to Undo the Damage (Suggestion)
So the approach is to bring ART, or DRAWING, totally out of context. (Transcending the stigma)

In other words, through careful RE-design, deconstruction and reconstruction of the activity of art in a way that even those who could draw (in particular ways) cannot gain any advantage.
(Leveling the playing field). With this, you build a condition necessary for learning to take place.
Socrates - Not knowing is when learning can begin.

Few things to keep in focus for this first phase of training.
1) focus on building confidence. think EMPOWERMENT.
2) focus on creating PLAY activities
3) focus on throwing everyone off their feet and forget (they are in fact) doing art. DISPLACEMENT OF FEAR

Watch out for nice accidents that happens when these activities happen (guaranteed). At appropriate time (intuitively), point it out, celebrate these seemingly nonsensical outcomes.
Preparation must be done in ploughing through tons of art especially of the 20th century by the teacher (guide) prior to this. Create a data bank of such art works.
Then when the students so called conclude the session, spend time discussing what they experienced.
Finally pull out examples from your data bank that have striking similar qualities with what they have done. Examples of these art works done are most probably labeled under modernism, dadaism, abstract expressionism, expressionism, impressionism, pop and post modernism.

Reconstruct their notion of art and deconstruct their stigma.

This process will not go away in a short time. You are likely to take around 3-6 months before something special begins to take over those stigma formed a long time ago.
From that point onwards, other forms of learning can take place.

End Note
It takes confidence from the teacher (guide) to make this happen too.
But from my experience, what I can share is that while the beginning stage seems to go nowhere sometimes, the majority of the students will end up excelling beyond what we can imagine later.
It will take a lot of patience and figuring out as you take this bold step forward.

Best wishes.

(more later, as promised)

I will just briefly list them down first for your reference. I promise to elaborate on them further and relate them to how art facilitates such developments.

10 essential qualities to develop in children

• independence
• confidence and tenacity
• courageous and responsible
• ability to communicate and socialize
• ability to manage assets and finances
• self motivated and ability to self learn
• creative and innovative 
• ability to relate and apply what they learn
• emotional control, commpassionate and loving
• connected and engaged being

Ten Lessons the Arts Teach
By Elliot Eisner

• The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.
• The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.
• The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.
• The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.
• The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor number exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
• The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.
• The arts traffic in subtleties.
• The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.
• The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.
• The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.
• The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.

What we have here is a lively study made on a couple of bottles by YaoJu.It has a strong sense of presence in the sketch, a nice variation of strokes and shading to depict the subject and a good overall treatment of atmosphere.While most people are concerned about the neatness of the work, and use it as a basis of judgement of good work of children art or not, I think otherwise. It is more important to stimulate the kid’s keen observation and expressiveness, and build their sense of confidence in themselves, rather than achieving those ‘dead’ static ‘qualities’ we so often find in taught/drilled art classes. I call those fake achievements of art.

Isn’t it a wonderful painting by Helene?She was given a short demo on how to mix the greens based on yellows and blue (because she was not given any green to work from intentionally). Thereafter she was pretty much on her own.The short demo looked like this:As you can see, it bares no resemblance on what she had to observe and express.It is important that we as art educators, refrain from doing demos that provide clues to our interpretation of what lays before these young explorers. The moment some form of ‘answer’ is provided to them, you will find it amazingly difficult to work them out of it later. I am a big advocate of art as a fundamental building block in educating an individual. It is paramount to recognize that I do not have preconceived expectation of each kid on what they draw.So long as they get engaged, play seriously, and learn from their adventures, they will eventually go somewhere worthwhile and interesting. I consider myself very lucky to be able to participate in their adventure. Here’s a picture of what Helene was working on. What Helene brought to us is way more than just a photographic image of the subject. Bravo!

The kids have started painting with watercolor for some time.
I decided that with exam and tests looming on the calendar, let’s not stress ourselves any further. So on Saturday’s workshop, we went loose on watercolor. Pretty much letting watercolor paint itself.
Sounds easy, until you find our control freak nature begins fighting ourselves.
None-the-less, Tong, YiDa and Dingg did well and came up with interesting pieces of work.

By YiDa

By Tong

By Dingg

Yida made it to the Art Elective Program in Hwa Chong Institution.Very happy for him.Recently he got started on watercolor.It isn’t exactly the simplest of mediums to work on. Hence he has been experiencing some tough times. He is none-the-less making progress.After all, as I always say, doing art here is really not about getting anywherewith the craft of art.Art workshops here are purely for the exposure that kids will gain through ‘weird’ exercises. At some point, many of the intangible but important connections will make sense to them some way, somehow.Periods of ‘little progress’ will happen to different kids at different point in time. Then suddenly when least expected, the kid makes the leap and many pointers seemingly ignored come together.Yida was stuck for some weeks. Just last week, after a long session on basics, things suddenly clicked and he broke-through again.The breakthrough I talked about, is not about particular craft. it is the awareness and mindfulness, the internal development that i am always using art to help others connect to. that i think transcends interest and passion.

Can’t help but want to applaud Helene again. 

This was how our conversation before the start went:
“Did you shifted the figures?”
“Yeah. Else I can’t see them. How am I suppose to draw?”
“Hmm. You draw what you see.”
“But I can’t see the face.”
“Right. Let’s see what it may look like from here …… hmmm ….(silence) … say it looks like a pig or something doesn’t it?”
(laugh)
“alrighty. Draw what you see.”
“Hrrrr ….”
“Good start.”
“Don’t look.”
“ok.”

So what followed was a good almost one hour of silent quality work with some prompters in-between.Good work! Helene.

 Hi,Let me introduce this sweet little girl called Helene. She’s 8. She joined the art workshop around a year ago.
 
This was what she did in May 2007 after a few lessons.It was a nice painting. The graphic was strong. Nice colors used. With a touch of sophistication in the greens and the blues.    
   
Now  this is what she’s been doing recently. What a jump!
 
 
Good work Helene. Congratulations. 

Posted as a reference for my students.:)  

All of the kids are making great progress. Take a look at their fabulous works.

(click to view)

Oh yes. We had another wonderful workshop today.
I feel so fortunate to be able to witness these kids grow and make great progress week after week.
They are all making very good progress.
As evident through the photographs, no two drawings are the same. Every one has a unique character and vision.
Lovely!

(click on image to view album)

YiYing is 9 years old.

this was where you started 4 months back in may.

Wow. It has been 5 months since I introduced the workshop.
Curious as to how Yida has changed over this period of time, I placed him on the same subject he started off with.
Interesting.

Here’s a close up look at the recent study.

It is not difficult to see how much he has progressed in terms of his observational skills.
On the most immediate side of things, his sketch has become much more alive, spatial and playful.
Most importantly, the marks left by the charcoal reflects a search by him looking at the subject matter with a beginner’s mind. This is the fundamental practice critical to all sense of wonder and discoveries.

Good work Yida! Wishing you best to your PSLE.

Here’s Yida at work recently.