Mother's Musings: Art Lessons

"It is better to have no art teacher than the wrong art teacher! For the wrong art teacher can destroy the potential giftedness of any person and the right teacher can help make a genius of a 'nobody'. But more important that artistic 'outcomes' is the importance of how the soul feels when doing art, only a good teacher can make the soul sing for joy as learner does art. Let us not forget too that practice and experiments are art 'teachers' too"

 We had an awful experience recently at our local art gallery. Not only was the content of the workshop not suitable for children (sleazy looking pin up girls sprawled over cars of yesteryear; we refused to participate in this part), but the teacher was grumpy, unprofessional and rude and in need of some education in the area of 'educational method'.

Emma was told she could copy the old fashioned car photographs around the art room. They went step by step with the teacher with the pencil sketch. Later the paints were handed out. Emma had already decided to do the shiny black car closest to her, no challenge daunts her. And she is used to looking for ways to make something dark look 3D. (as far as I am concerned the experiment of doing something challenging is a great learning experience and is far more valuable than producing a perfect 'easy painting' completed to make an adult happy!).

But Emma was told by the art teacher that she could not have black as "black makes your picture flat!" ?????okay.???? ( How about teaching an eager child how to use black???) So the art teacher came around and painted all the kids wheels black for them so they did not have to paint with black - sacrilege - no one ever 'helps' Emma paint her pictures! Emma, of course, insisted she do her own wheels. But with the temptation of black on her palette now she started dabbling with black here and there (not that she had much black to dabble with) and got further comments about 'not doing it right'.

If all that wasn't enough her painting was further critiqued with zero encouragement! And finally she did her usual sprawling EMMA, AGE 9, 2011 on her picture- well she may as well have committed a crime worthy of being expelled from the class for the outcry that received! By this stage my patience had totally run out and I spoke out quietly and gently to the delinquent teacher...who was totally irrational by this stage. In the end I had to just walk away and burst into tears in a quiet corner... I was furious that a young child could have her life's effort destroyed by a selfish self centred adult, who needed to 'do her routine', over and above having any professional compassion for a child. I know, I know....How was this teacher to know about the 'labels' and trials that this little lamb had overcome in years past to achieve what she has achieved today...through the joy and delight of her art! And yet just a basic professional compassion could have protected any child from such a rude and unpleasant experience.

Being a homeschooling group there were other horrified Mom's who consoled me and 'looked out' for Emma, encouraging her etc. Some kids twigged on too and also encouraged her and told her how good her picture was. Not surprisingly it was the worst one I have seen in ages. But in the end Emma came out all right. She did tell me emphatically if ever she is an art teacher she would, 'make kids feel good about their work.' And that she felt sorry for the teacher because 'it must make her feel  real bad to be so unkind.' Undeterred she came home and used black on her painting to her hearts content- way to go my child, I like it! I was so proud of her 'bounce back' ability!

And so I conclude

"It is better to have no art teacher than the wrong art teacher! For the wrong art teacher can destroy the potential giftedness of any person and the right teacher can help make a genius of of a 'nobody'. But more important that artistic 'outcomes' is the importance of how the soul feels when doing art, only a good teacher can make the soul sing for joy as learner does art"

For now, as I search for the 'right' art teacher to stand alongside my daughter, we continue to access the best international teachers on DVD! (We are about to purchase Nancy Ticbourne's water colour DVDs, take a look at her beautiful work here: http://www.watercolours.co.nz/ My late friend Joanne learnt to paint beautifully using these borrowed DVDs, so there is a bit of sentiment involved in asking this genius to be my daughter's 'DVD art teacher'! I would indeed love to meet her in person!)

But even so Emma-Jane does not rely heavily on a 'DVD teacher' for what she does at this stage. Emma just cannot be stopped....she draws and paints every day with no prompting from anyone at all -  

Art is the music and 'backbone' of Emma-Jane's life!  

She sees something (either physical or in her head) and experiments with mediums until she gets it to her liking. Sometimes she will leave it for a few weeks and just think about it and then come back and do it 'right'.  Other times it just flows out of her brain and fingers like magic. For Emma-Jane art is like breathing, it is just part of her life! I love that as a homeschooling mother I can watch her flourish and blossom without her having to be stereotyped and scrutinised and moulded into the boredom of a usual school routine. And interestingly enough recent tests have proved that her learning difficulties fade as time goes by (She will even out in the end!) Her self esteem is in tack - no special classes, no 'remedial' work as far as she is aware - for 

Emma-Jane is the queen of her kingdom.... our little artistic genius, our little artistic child prodigy, our supreme artist, our Darling, our Love! So what, what anyone else in the world might think - we love her art, we love our Emma-Jane and she is one of the happiest little girls on the face of the earth!