Thursday, January 7, 2016

Everyone Needs Art


A few months ago, I was lucky enough for the opportunity to teach eco-art to a couple groups of 8th graders as part of an outdoor education school trip.  Kids who come on these trips participate in chosen activities such as climbing tower, archery, boating, and team building activities.  Eco-art is one of many classes that the school can choose from.  For those not familiar with eco-art, it is simply a class that lets students take objects from nature to create their own two or three dimensional sculpture or design.  The first class I taught was awesome!  My students delved into the project with gusto, made cool natural designs, and even came up with profound explanations for them.  I felt like I was running a mini-art school class in the woods.  The second class I taught was also awesome, in a completely different way.  This group was much less enthusiastic.    As I launched into my passionate lesson about eco-art and art mediums that can be found in nature, I could sense a quiet air of disappointment that lingered over them for not getting to do something more exciting, like boating or ziplining, instead of something that had the word “art”in  it.  I steadfastly  led the somber group into the woods to gave them some ideas for how to start making their own artwork.  I watched students start an idea, only to abandon it to go in another direction.    Despite the lack of gusto, I saw how determined they all were to create a piece of eco-art.  All of them put some respectable effort into coming up with something, and I was proud of them for that.  Teaching in an outdoor setting like this has the added bonus of noticing small details in the natural world, that one can miss when simply on a hike.  One student picked up a beautiful chrysalis, and asked me what is was.  I was pretty sure that student had never seen one before.  At the conclusion of the class, I asked them what they found was the hardest part about this assignment.  Out of my very quiet group, one student answered “finding a place to start”.  As an artist, I can’t even begin to describe how much I relate to that statement.  Very often, the hardest part of any creative venture, is finding an place to start, and being willing to start over if an idea is not working.

Teaching this class of reluctant eco-artists made me realize just how much value the creative process is for everyone.  The basic exercise of coming up with an idea (without any concrete starting point), and expanding on it, is valuable for virtually any field of study. Art has the added bonus of teaching problem solving and how to deal with frustration. How important is creativity and art?  Imagine every field of study possible, from medicine and science, to business and engineering.  Now imagine each of those fields with a complete lack of creativity.  How can a scientist or business leader come up with an original idea without experiencing the sometimes frustrating creative process?  Art is not frivolous, and it is important for all to get the experience of practicing art in some form, for the wonderful lessons it teaches us.  I think fondly of my eco-art students when I am sitting at my work table struggling with finding a place to start.