#4 "The arts teach children that…circumstances and opportunity change…" Elliot Eisner

“The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstances and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.”Elliot Eisner

What does this mean to me?

In my experience of producing art, the finished piece is never exactly my original intensions. Available, previously saved, found materials usually dictate the look of the piece. I always have to examine everything in my studio throughout my art making process. With a vision of what I want to make, I can better chose elements and objects that fit. Depending on what I find, my vision could be altered a bit. While it is necessary for me to add things of interest to my collection of found objects, going outside and finding something specific is rarely possible.*

Students are often disappointed when their project didn’t turn out the way they wanted. I think this is great; now they have a reason to do the same project again with changes for improvement. Trial and error is part of the creative process toward innovation.

Time, size, tools, materials, and my preconceived vision dictates the focus of the project. This is a guide that helps to keep me on track, but I realize I have to stay open to those “aha” moments that I could not anticipate ahead of time. Within certain constraints, I have the freedom to explore some options. If I make my own rules, I can easily break them. 

Artists are often self employed, and free to change course in the discovery of new ideas for growth. It is different from executing someones idea for production. The original designer already figured out what they wanted. In the case of a private commission, new sketches need approval from the decision makers. Students with assignments need to speak to the teacher to determine degrees of flexibility. JA 

*(I write from the perspective of collecting objects and elements for collage and assemblage. If I was drawing or painting, those things would be arranged for still life. For my camera, I would also be looking for objects and elements of interest; but not limited to what I can carry home to my studio.) JA 

Christkindl Market in Chicago, December 11, 2011

Faces, food, and fun;
hand made objects, ornaments and vessels
from mostly Germany, and also Ecuador, Israel, Peru, Poland, and Ukraine.
.
The holiday season celebrates the people, their culture,
and crafts from around the world. 

Christkindl Market Chicago website

#3 “The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.”by Elliot Eisner

“The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.”(Elliot Eisner)

What does this mean to me? 

The arts has taught me much about myself. I have discovered shape, color, design, and material preference through making art. I have been able to create a visual representation of my thoughts and ideas from my experience and my environment. 

As a young student I learned a great deal from other artists and art teachers. In critiques of my student art work, I was given very helpful information that I used. After graduation, I felt so grateful to be on my own to do my own thing and not worry about pleasing my teachers. I respect my academic education in art, but I have enjoyed my freedom to explore the “what if I broke some of the rules I was taught?” I now make up my own rules and explore my freedom to break them if I wish. I love taking the time to risk the “what if I do this” moments. 

As a young jewelry and metalsmithing teacher I was very controlling. In the beginning my student’s projects all looked very much alike. They left without their projects at the end of the year and this disturbed me. I began “letting go” by teaching many smaller, technical projects in the first quarter; and then second quarter allowing more freedom for them to explore their own designs. I taught them about general design ideas, and showed examples of how the various techniques they learned could be combined in various ways. 

During this second quarter our relationship became more about negotiating, than requiring them to do what I asked. Some would take off like “gang-busters.” Others seemed to be lost as if they had never been given the opportunity to make decisions for themselves. 

“Letting go” was not easy for me, but I informed them about a safety net. I asked them to think about the evaluation differences between first and second quarter. In the beginning, I gave very strict assignments with precise goals. If they deviated from my requirements, I graded them down. After they understood the basics of soldering, sawing, polishing, etc; they then had the vocabulary to use them in paragraphs. These paragraphs became very interesting and complex pieces of jewelry. My evaluation would now be based on effort and completion; I could not evaluate their ideas. Their ideas are all good, based on individual “perspective” and “interpretation”. 

My students bought into what I wanted for them because they knew they were given something they could use for their own ideas. They and I were satisfied and happy. Our final critique was more about the exploration of their idea and other ways to express it next time; not about craftsmanship and technique. With practice, those will improve over time. 

We celebrated the differences and similarities between the projects. The students were excited to see the many solutions by their colleagues to the same assignment. And next semester, returning students wanted to continue to explore last semesters ideas with variations and improvements. “BINGO!” JA

#2 “The arts teach children that problems can have...”by Elliot Eisner

“The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.”(Elliot Eisner)

What does this mean to me? 

As an artist I am highly suspect of any pronouncement of a single, simple solution to any problem. At the other extreme; over thinking the multitude of all the possibilities in solving just one problem could take a lifetime. The artist must narrow the scope and simplify the focus on smaller parts of the larger issues of art and life. Hence, the lifelong struggle of many artists to discover the true meaning of their own work. 

In my art, I start with a plan consisting of a list of issues or element I want to include. This could be color/shape dominance, variety of materials and techniques, a purpose or idea, and the presentation. I want the work to be complex, but you cannot include everything in one project; so simplification is necessary. Anything can be repeated in a series of projects showing variation, change, and growth toward one final goal. One problem is being solved through many different solutions one project at a time. JA

This is demonstrated by the following statements about an exhibition of African Ceramics at the Art Institute of Chicago: 

For Hearth and Alter African Ceramics from the Keith Achepohl Collection, Kathleen Bickford Berzock, at the Art Institute of Chicago.

“In the collection, the idea of endless variations on a theme emerges through the groupings of pots on display. Good examples are seen in the Nupe or Zulu pots (cat. 68-75, 122-25).” (Kathleen Bickford Berzock)

“It is wonderful to see that variations on a theme do reveal more information. Usually, in our research, we only see one example of a particular artist’s work. You don’t realize the artist may have made fifty drawings, paintings, or sculptures based on [one] idea.” “.....all of those objects are worth looking at, to find out how an idea bloomed from the small seed of an inception to something grand and wonderful only through lots of trial and error. By looking at many pieces, we start seeing the variations, and they become beautiful and [inform] us that variations in life are pretty amazing.” (Keith Achepohl)