Entry No.7 3/6/21 #Challenges

After adding to my art piece last week, I think it looks like clouds and rain dripping down. I think the coffee cup rings look like the sun and the moon. I was debating about whether I wanted to make this an abstract piece or something more representational. But after thinking about the imagery I already saw, I decided to go with a more representational piece. As I was thinking about what to add, I was looking at my herb garden that I grow in my window, and I wanted to add that to my piece. I have never been particularly good with plants, but I was determined to keep these alive, and I have for over a year now. I like gardening because it relaxes me, but it also challenges me, too.

Often times, people give up on the arts because it is unapproachable or challenging. People will often say they can’t draw or that they do not know how to look at art. Museums can seem elitist and if art does not turn out how someone pictures it in their mind, then they give up. I think this often affects people who are from lower income families or areas. But art is all around us, and we all appreciate it in some way, whether it is through fashion, interior design, ads, furniture, or any number of different artistic things in our daily lives. I think the key is to challenge students’ ideas of what art actually means and how to approach it.

When I was in college, I took a class entitled “Slow Looking”. The class took place mainly in a museum and we just talked about the artwork. The average person spends around eight seconds in total looking at an artwork, but then feels like they do not know what is going on in the artwork. We were taught to slow down and just observe the pieces, and afterward we would have group discussion about peoples’ observations and inferences we could make from those. Sometimes this was frustrating because I did not always know what I was supposed to infer from the artwork. But, after refocusing and just writing my observations, I could make some inferences after that. We also read articles about how museum guides would lead children through art pieces, and the guided questions they would ask.

I think a similar approach is good for teaching students about how to look at artwork, both that of famous artists and that of their peers and their own. This is also a practice we have done a lot in class, especially in peer teaching. We have been encouraged to guide our peers through our lesson plans, but also to ask them guiding questions about their thoughts and their projects as we go along. It can be challenging to come up with follow up questions, but that is what also challenges students to think deeper and to take the conversation to a whole new level.

Art is not always easy to approach, similarly to how gardening for me is not easy. I had to learn, observe, and experiment in order to get my herbs to grow, and there have been other challenges along the way. I have recently gotten an aphid outbreak in my plants, and I have had to do research on how to get rid of the little bugs without hurting my plants. Challenges will come up with students and they will get frustrated looking at art or creating art. At this point I will encourage them to slow down, write some observations, and then refocus. I will be there to guide them through lessons and ask them questions to deepen their thoughts and understanding.