Blog 1: My best and worst experience in art...

Well, let me see...I have always enjoyed doing art ever since I was young, so my memory of art has always been positive rather than negative. One of the best memories of art I have from my childhood was when I was in Grade 5. I was in the art club and also participated as an "art leader" in our school. We were assigned a major project in conjunction with the Calgary Zoo to paint animals on wooden panels that would then be displayed at the zoo. I was really excited about the fact that my art work would be displayed in public for people to see. This experience made me realized how important it is for an artist to have their art work viewed by the public, and also how affirming it is to have others view your artwork as worthwhile. I think this is especially important for children because they need to see how people value their work, and a public forum creates a true sense of the community valuing a student's work.

Another great experience that I had was when my elementary school had a "class certificate" award each week for different qualities that the school was trying to instill in students. One week the award was for "the most creative imagination" and I won it!. That week we were to create an illustrated book based on fairy tales. My book was called "The Three Stinky Pizza Men". I was inspired by the book called "The Stinky Cheeseman" (loved it as a kid!) It took me a long time to draw three pizzas on each page but in the end I was proud of my drawings. We even got it laminated so it looked like a professional book! That was the first time I actually enjoyed writing a story because I was intergrating it with art. I was really happy when I won the award; it gave me the feeling of being recognized for my work, which is always important to children.

Most of my best memories of art occured in elementary school; that is probably why I am drawn to becoming an elementary art teacher. I want to be able to give students the chance to explore, to feel happy for accomplishing something that they might not have done without assistance, and to receive recognition for the great things they do!

As for my worst experience, it was during high school. We were to come up with ideas for our next art project based on a song my teacher had us listen to. I came up with an idea that I thought would be interesting and evocative to the viewers, but when I told her about it she would say something along the lines of "no...how about this". No matter what I said, her response was always "no...how about this". That made me frustrated because, regardless what I said about my ideas, she already had a certain vision of she wanted the project to look like. It basically took me and my creativity out of the project - instead, I was mechanically producing what she wanted to see. I can see how this could also be a problem for students of any age because they are often told how projects could be "better" if they do things THIS way instead of THEIR way. Teachers and parents need to be aware that student/artists need to have opportunities to explore and create using their own ideas, or they will not feel involved or "heard" in their own art!