Where Do You Start with Art? Part 2

 A trip to a museum to see and photograph (if allowed) related art could be a "big experience."

MORE WAYS TO PRIME THE MIND. See the last blog post to figure out what and why-for this is all about!

Research.

Start with a list of questions about your topic. Write as many as you can. Review your questions and, if possible, discover additional questions to ask and answer about the subject -- perhaps by sharing with a group. Use one or more of these methods to track down answers, possible answers and even just hints of answers to your questions:

Search the internet.

Look in the library.

Read related books or magazine articles.

Interview someone.

Create a survey.

Experiment.

Check out YouTube or other online sources of video or audio.

After researching, draw, write about and/or graph what you learned, what was most important.

Generate ideas.

Use your imaginations about the subject in these and other ways:

Daydream

Ask "what if" questions.

Brainstorm or mind-map

Consider the subject from as many viewpoints as possible

Think WAYYYY outside the box

Big experience.

Design for yourself, if possible, a large, concrete, “unforgettable” experience related to the subject or theme of your study. Examples:

An excursion (can be imaginary)

A live animal

A live demonstration/performance 

Participation in a big group or collaborative event

A visit to a museum or park or historical site that gives you ideas about your theme

See a movie or documentary related to your theme, if possible on the big screen!

PS: Dr. Cynthia Herbert (my friend Cindy) added two more great ideas to her list. Since she inspired this whole series, I want to include the ideas, so look below in the comment section -- and add your own ideas, too.

The next post will feature ideas for INVENTION.

Where Do You Start with Art? Part 1

 A collection of ethnic textiles might be where you start.

One of the creative skills I will be taking my Southwest School of Art class through is that of making a study as a way to develop ideas and images for a series of art quilts. As we work though these ideas (the course meets weekly on Mondays from February 4- March 25) we'll be building a stash of ideas and information focused on one theme or topic. This is often the way I work on a piece of art for a submission when the theme is one that I am considering for the first time.

These notes were written by my Missing Alphabet colleague Dr. Cynthia Herbert, and were originally developed for our teacher training program in Dallas for our afterschool program (part of Big Thought). I've adapted them for artists, with her permission, and will share them here in a series of posts his week.

DOING A STUDY

A STUDY is a sustained investigation of a single concept, thing, theme or idea. In a study, a child explores many, many different viewpoint, contexts and materials. The Sensory Alphabet is used as nine “lenses” through which to view the object of the study. After many explorations, the child expresses a personal definition or viewpoint through one or more original forms.

BRAIN RESEARCH SAYS:

Current brain research and cognitive psychology tells us that human beings can only learn very low-level tasks and ideas through drill and rote memorization. For learning to be faster, longer lasting and of a higher order, each of us must “construct” our own personally meaningful definitions. Although we will all have common notions, the depth and variety of our experiences will determine the depth and dimensionality of our understanding.

For any one of us to be able to use a concept to solve problems, make decisions, express ourselves, and enrich our quality of life, we need a well-elaborated mental representation—a concept that looks very like a complex spider web of interconnected experiences and ideas. The STUDY makes the development and elaboration of mental representations an overt process that leads to “deep understanding” and “transference,” what has been called the “so what?” of learning. This is a valuable way to start an art project or any project that needs more than superficial responses.  

FORMAT: A study is divided into three parts: Priming, Invention and Reflection. Today, I'll list the kinds of activities that are part of priming. Some of these are more appropriate than others for the kind of thinking that art-making is about, but since we do all of these with kids in our classes, I'm listing them all!

PRIMING: Priming activities are intended to prepare each mind to be ready to construct (create)  his or her own definition of the subject being studied. Here are the first two ways to PRIME the mind (more coming next post).

Connect.

Connect the subject with your former experiences, current feelings or opinions and curiosity. Write, journal or search through your collections, stash and memories to make a connection to the theme. IF you can't find a connection, this may not be a good topic for your art -- but most of us, give our lovely capacity for experience, have many connections to much of the world!

Observe and Collect.

Make direct observations and collections in regard to the subject. Focus observations using the Sensory Alphabet and physical "lookers"  to make notes or drawings. Sometimes new ideas for note taking are employed. Take photos, videos or recordings to project/replay and share and use all your senses.

Working from Limitations

 Sometimes what makes us powerful are our very limitations. I'm fully devoted to the notion that we find our best and strongest work by working from our strengths -- that is, after all what my book The Missing Alphabet is all about--  but defining one's strengths takes astute and deep consideration. Sometimes what looks like a weakness or disability to a parent, a teacher, the culture at large, or even to oneself can become, with a change of perspective, our greatest strength.

This article in the New York Times about artist Chuck Close makes the point.

“I wanted people to notice me, not that I couldn’t remember their faces or add or subtract,” Close said, referring to the learning and neurological disabilities that set him apart from his classmates when he was growing up in Monroe, Wash.

A terrible writer and test-taker, Mr. Close used art to make it through school. Instead of handing in a paper, he told the children, “I made a 20-foot-long mural of the Lewis and Clark trail.”

What are you calling a limitation that could be a defining element of your work?

All good and fine direction is defined by the "rules" that limit its scope. We don't (often or successfully) try to include every trick pony in the stable in one piece of art. Or use every color in equal proportions.

Some limitations need addressing, maybe a technical skill we need to improve, or our eye for a strong composition. But some things that I hear artists bemoaning on line --- their age, that they aren't good at drawing, that they only have a couple of hours in the week to make art-- might be just the "rules" that can help define their work. For example, in my case, I don't draw very well, I am getting better, but sketching is probably never going to be my FAVORITE art activity, and certainly understanding and mastering line and value, as good sketch artists do, is not something I am cut out to do.

I long ago figured out that I could cut shapes and forms far better than I could draw them (go figure, its just the way my brain works). I had to figure that out in order to proceed in making my work have the narrative content I wanted to share.  I don't compare my weakness in drawing to Close's neurological inability to recognize faces, but I do count finding an approach to art that was a work-around one that is a great gift and strength in my work.

Some limitations, like Close's, might even turn out to be the great stand-out quality in our work.

For more about Close, listen to this podcast from PBS.

Pulling Me all Together

Perhaps you have this problem, too. Lots of different people living under one head (or in one).

I've been challenged to tell the story of how and what I do that ties it all together. This book, The Missing Alphabet, my teaching (here and there), art work (big and little), my work with Central American teachers...the occassional foray into designing kid's programs, training teachers at Big Thought in our New World Kids programs or volunteer work in pr for the upcoming SDA conference. (Whew!) What is the strand -- well, perhaps multifiliment cable is a better image -- that ties it all together?

At the core of what I do is a deep and well-grounded interest in the creative process, an interest, and profession, that has 50 years of history behind it. I was one of those lucky kids who found a creative path at a young age, nurtured by a very, at the time, radical children's theatre program. That was not only integrated racially, but integrated creatively. And this in Waco, Texas, go figure. 

What those early experiences in inventing, presenting, working long hours, delving into personal and collaborative visions did was to give me a grounding in both the how and the what of creative work. As a result of that children's theatre I had experiences as a teen, young woman and young professional that took me from, at age 18, running a visiting  children's program for 20,000 participants at HemisFair '68 to the Year of the Child with Erik and Joan Erickson (PS she was also a weaver) at the Smithsonian Institute, to a fulltime model school that won international accolades and a Ford Foundation designation of model educaitonal program, to the Kennedy Center for exhibit and program design, to Cleveland in the era of serious racial disharmony to teach in inner city neighborhoods, from there to Neiman-Marcus with window designs and products that showed up in the Christmas catalog. (again, whew) I am so grateful for such a rich and complicated creative path.

The new book for parents, The Missing Alphabet, is ONE summary of thaat informed inquiry that started when I was twelve and developed through that career in first in arts education, then in journalism, museum exhibit design, writing and art making. This book is what's come of my experiences and those of my co-authors (with similar and diverging paths) as written for parents who want their children to meet the challenge of 21st Century thinking and literacy sklls.

Other summaries have developed into courses I teach to adults, such as Creative Jumpstart, Finding Your Path as an Artist, and the Artist's Journey. But the philosophy and approach informs all of the workshops and retreats that I teach -- even those that are somewhat technique oriented. I always try to move beyond or below or above or inside of a technique or tool, teaching it as a means for someone to find as the ideal expression for her or his story. At the core of my teaching is a deep and abiding belief in the power of individual story and expression. I do firmly believe that each person on this earth has a unique, powerful and absolutely unrepeatable experience to express in some or another medium, be it art, science, music, research, homemaking, poetry or any other field you can come up with. And I make art myself because I am passionately drawn to figuring out what it is I have to say -- and, besides, how could I have any credibility in this world of wonderful artists I find myself in, if I didn't make my own statements?

I've had many ways to express my story and my creativity in my life, in my art, in my relationships, in my teaching, writing and designing. I love having the opportunity to open the doors for other's creative work though example and through nurturing connection and conversation. The personal values I have selected as guiding stars for the next stage of my creative life are: CREATIVITY, CONNECTION (CONVERSATION), ADVENTURE, IMAGINATION, and ALIGNMENT

Post Script: And speaking of conversation between the this and that of our lives, here is another wonderful piece from David Whyte: