why THIS is so important to art making
So often when we begin our journey as tiny artists (still unable to grip our creative utensils) what we are shown of art making is usually a final result; your Thanksgiving hand turkey will look like this, or your pasta christmas tree might look like this or draw a house like this.
Of course as every child works they alter it with their own touch and make it a little bit different than the example given- but generally the way we learn art as kids is to replicate a product that the teacher showed us.
Now here is why this isn't art; there is no room for going off down your own path, for innovating and making discoveries along the way. You receive the materials to make your product and you're expected to follow the given steps to arrive at the finish line which looks almost identical to every other kids finish line. This doesn't affirm who we are as creators, it doesn't give us room to explore out unique interests or styles but rather teaches us that we can follow the example and look at what our neighbor is doing and successfully copy it.
We aren't encouraged to create our own idea of what a Thanksgiving turkey might look like or given a set of materials and be directed to explore them in whatever way we decide.
It makes me sad to see matching art works hanging on classroom walls- as if kids don't have enough innovation to translate instructions in their own way to make their very own and unique piece of art.
This is really the difference between process and product. When you begin making something generally it's a good idea to have a product in mind, but sometimes the process takes over, you diverge and end up in a far better place than if you had stuck rigidly to your idea of the product you had in mind. Sometimes it's fun to just let the process lead the way; gather some materials and have no end point in mind and just see what happens.
But for the most part creating from a place of trying to achieve a similar result as our neighbor dumbs down our creative spark and just nourishes our idea that doing the same as everyone else is the right thing to do.
I encourage you to revel in your own process and stop worrying about what the product might look like and then see how much you learn!
