STA.

TERESA COLLEGE
BAUAN BATANGAS
COLLEGE DEPARTMENT

Lesson 3 The Artist in the Early Grades

Student Learning Objectives (SLO)

1. Familiarize yourself with the mindset, attitude, and values that must be developed in
young learners to help foster a healthy attitude toward the practice of art.

2. Reflect on the presence or absence of these artistic values in your own life an an art
educator, and consider how to develop them to the point that you can encourage their
development in others.

Content
"Nemo dat quod non habet"
(You cannot give what you do not have)
-Latin Maxim

Any practicing artist can tell you that art first begins in the mind, with artistic
skills serving only to create what is already seen in the imagination. The skill of an
artist can, thus, be seen in how faithfully it can translate what he or she imagines.
into a work of art. If there was nothing held in the imagination-no finished picture,
painting, drawing, or sculpture-even just fleetingly, can the end product be truly
considered "art"?

It is, thus, necessary to identify the habits of the mind-the mindset-that art
educators should both possess and seek to develop in their students in the early
grades through the teaching of art: the values, philosophical positions, and the
focus needed for art to thrive in Philippine education.

A. Inspired by Daily Experiences and Encounters

Part of the "artistic sense" is a sensitivity to beauty-not just in big and

grand spectacles and experiences, but particularly in the everyday things we see
and experience as we go about our lives. This is difficult to explain and likewise
teach for a number of reasons:

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1. Exposure - The ability to see beauty every day does not appear out of thin air:
rather, it often takes someone else explaining to us how something simple and
commonplace can be beautiful, and in terms that are appropriate for our
developmental stages. Students will need to be exposed to artwork that
celebrates the commonplace over the course of several occasions before the
lesson sticks.

2. Context - It is almost a cliché to say that beauty is subjective, that is, what is
beautiful depends on the individual. It can also be said that beauty depends on
the context-we know it when we see or hear it, but when something is framed
within the right context, it suddenly appears beautiful Conversely, when
something is placed in the wrong context, we do not perceive it as beautiful. The
trick, then, is finding the right context for what we wish the learners to appreciate.

This is where careful and deliberate manipulation of the learning

environment becomes important; a quiet studio lends itself to appreciating still life
arrangements, for example, as learners concentrate on reproducing simple
outlines with whatever the medium of the day might be, or studying the way
different angles and intensities of light cast shadows.

3. Age - Children are naturally drawn to the novel, the unusual, and the exciting.
Bigger, bolder, faster, brighter, louder are a guaranteed formula to gain the
interest of children. Action and movement excite them. whereas the comparatively
slow, methodical pace of everyday life does not. Educators will need to tailor the
experiences they have planned for young learners so that they both communicate
the lesson while holding the learners' interest.

Man has been inspired by nature since the dawn of the time of man, and the
ability to appreciate beauty in nature appears to be innate. Mountains, lakes,
animals, trees, flowers, insects, and the like are all fair game for artists of all ages.
It should not be difficult to get young learners to desire to commit scenes from
nature-real or imaginary-to paper, as it is an almost natural thing to do, and
relatively easy as well.

Events have also been a great source of inspiration for artists. If we

consider ancient art-the kind found in the prehistoric cave systems of Europe, the
pyramids of Egypt, bas-relief sculptures from Mesopotamia, and so on, we find
that most if not all of them depict events-a successful hunt, the victory of the king
over his enemies, the death of an important political or religious leader, or even
the ancient incarnation of the Olympic Games are all examples of events that
have been committed in one way or another to works of art.

An easily overlooked opportunity to teach beauty in the everyday context

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is in the simple act of coloring a picture. The picture can be chosen to be exciting,
dynamic, full of movement and action, or simple and quiet, with nothing
particularly exciting going on-whatever the teacher deems appropriate for the
class at that particular time. The actual lesson is in the process of coloring the
quiet concentration, the stirring up of the desire to color well when exposed to
examples the children consider "better," and so on. Within the context of coloring
pictures, lessons on form, light, shading, color harmony, and the like can be
taught organically (i.e, as the need arises) and with relative ease.

B. Constantly Curious

While curiosity is often cited as a characteristic of scientists, it is also an

essential part of being an artist, albeit that while a scientist might be curious as to
what is in the design of a bird's wing that enables it to fly, an artist might be
curious as to how to make the wing "look alive" even when rendered in a static,
unmoving work of art. Where a scientist is curious regarding the how and why of
natural phenomena, an artist should be curious regarding how to make beautiful
things given a set of limitations and parameters.

Because there will always be limitations and boundaries (e.g., lack of

materials, lack of time, lack of conducive environments, etc.), artists should also
be constantly looking for ways to integrate art into areas and disciplines where art
has not traditionally been part of. These areas and disciplines will have their own
boundaries and limitations, which for the artists can provide the impetus for
artistic innovations not possible anywhere else. A good example of this can be
found in Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations, where artwork has been
integrated into the walls of the commuter walkways, adding pops of color and
interest into what would otherwise be a functional but drab commute.

C. Open-Minded

Related to curiosity is “open-mindedness”, which is the willingness to be

exposed to new ideas and to consider them on their own merits. It is the quality of
not being "locked down by a particular set of rules or principles for the sake of
tradition, but rather a willingness to wrestle with ideas and ways of doing things
that might be very different from our own-all with the attitude of learning new
things to add to one's "toolbox" of techniques and perspectives.

Some areas where an open mind is an artistic asset are:

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1. Lack of resources
2. The idea of perfection
3 Criticism

The practice of art can be an expensive endeavor-the best-quality

materials are never affordable even when available, and so where certain
techniques and processes are not feasible due to lack of the proper materials, an
open mind is needed to perceive and embrace that which is possible given what
is available.

Open-mindedness is also an asset when it comes to the idea of

"perfection in art-a concept which artists reject. After all, what does perfection in
art mean? Fidelity to reality? Then what do we make of cartoons, comics, and
animation? The truth is that there is no such thing as "perfect" in art without an
objective standard, and what most people hold as the standard for evaluating art
is their subjective ideas of what is and is not beautiful. Accepting that perfection in
art is a fool's errand and coming to terms with one's strengths and weaknesses as
an artist are part and parcel of becoming a mature artist.

Lastly, an open mind is necessary for an artist to benefit from criticism. All
criticisms, valid or otherwise, involve a measure of pain for the one being
criticized-we are proud of our work, after all, however middling it might be and it
takes an open mind to accept that there is always something to learn, always
something that can be improved upon, even when presented to us by unpleasant
people in unpleasant ways. Criticism is an inevitable part of being an artist, and
being able to take criticism well is vital to an artist's mental, emotional, and
professional well-being.

D. Art as Authentic Self-Expression

Art can be defined as any expression of the inner desire to create beauty.
Thus, the desire to create something that is beautiful is the defining feature of the
artist-Le., it is what makes an artist an artist-and any work of art that an artist
produces is but an expression of that desire. Since beauty is varied and
multifaceted-a thunderstorm can be beautiful, just like a more pastoral landscape-
art can, thus, be varied and multifaceted.

The point is that art is art because the artist wishes to express something
however fleeting or nebulous that something might be. This is what is meant by
art as authentic self-expression.

E. Art as Self-Expression

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Expanding this concept, we see that teaching art is not limited to a simple
technique-the how of art-but must also include teaching it as a means for students
to communicate feelings, experiences, interests, and desires-the why of art. We
can see this idea at play in the tension between "being true to oneself vis-a-vis
"giving the people what they want."

This translates to the classroom by teaching students to use their art to

express something that they feel, rather than simply feeding off the works of
others the authentic" part of "authentic self-expression."

F. Valuing Authenticity

Wrapped up in the mind and heart of an artist is a desire for affirmation

some outside validation that the work we produce is, in fact, beautiful in the way
the artist intended it. That is, artists want to know that what they wanted to
express via their art has indeed been expressed.

This nuance can be easily lost to young learners, for whom validation of
their artwork can feel like personal validation. As a result, there might be a strong
desire to simply imitate the work of others for the sake of the validation it brings.
This is not "authentic self-expression, rather it is a kind of "feeding off of the works
of others.

Do note however that it is in the nature of learners to learn via imitation,

which should be encouraged up to a point- that is, once the learners have a firm
grasp of how to execute a technique (via imitation), they should be encouraged to
move beyond imitating the work of others toward creating original work of their
own.

Because there will be a tendency for young learners to value others' work
over their own, moving them toward originality involves opening their eyes to the
value of their own original work. This can be done by gently encouraging them to
first modify whatever it is they are imitating to suit their own tastes or satisfy their
curiosity: switching up the color palette, for example, or moving an object in a
composition somewhere else. Students need to learn that this is already a valid
creative exercise in and of itself, and only when they are comfortable with
modifying existing work should they then be encouraged to come up with
completely original work of their own.

G. Enjoyment in the Process

It would be very strange for an artist to not enjoy the process of creating
art-after all, this is one of the reasons why he or she is an artist. An artist must

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enjoy the process, plain and simple or else pursue something other than art.

Let us be very clear with this: Everyone feels the desire to create beauty,
but only an artist perseveres when the process of creating beauty becomes
tedious, frustrating, and repetitive for the sake of producing something beautiful.
This is why artists will endure long, lonely hours of drawing a pattern by hand, for
example, or create sketch after sketch after sketch in repeated attempts to
understand the visual physiology of something before committing it to a more
permanent medium.

As an art teacher, you will find learners with a varying degree of patience
and grit for the process of creating art in your classroom: a few will be willing to
take the time to carefully and neatly fill in areas with color, many will start well and
then give up as the minutes pass, and a few will hardly care for any art exercise
you give them. You might not be able to turn them into artists, but the overall goal
is to expose them to a wide variety of artistic processes so that they might find
one that they enjoy, as they will be more likely to pursue it to completion.

Make no mistake: sooner or later, the artistic process will become

difficult. When it comes to young learners, the goal should not be attaining
mastery of any artistic technique-that will come with time. Instead, the goal is to
teach them to love the creation of beauty, however small it might appear to us.
After all, love makes the labor light.

Reference
Tizon et.al, Teaching Visual Arts in the Elementary Grades, REX
Bookstore

Prepared: Checked: Approved:

Mrs. JOY N. REYES ______________________ ____________________
Instructor Department Head Dean

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