Zoey Graf

Viewing and analyzing art is part of most school art programs, yet I knew I could more fully engage students in observation and interpretation while leaving space for wonder. I also wanted students to consider where ideas come from and how traditional and contemporary artwork can inspire personal connections and art-making.

Up-Close and Personal: How Does the Display of Artwork Influence the Viewerʼs Experience?
We hosted a traveling exhibition with the theme of the symbolism of monsters in printmaking, featuring the work of Carolyn Gerk. Before viewing the work, students were guided to generate ideas about symbolism and monsters. In both large and small groups, students looked at examples alongside artist statements and stories.

Younger students played with ideas from fairy tales, myths, and legends, focusing particularly on wolves and villains. Older students examined how women have been represented as monsters and witches at different times throughout history.

Upon entering the viewing space—our school library—students were encouraged to examine the detailed professional prints more closely. With symbolism and monsters in mind, they made informed interpretations, discussing archetypes, mental health, world events, and aspects of their own identities. Gentle invitations for further consideration included making connections to pop culture, thinking about how freedom might be symbolized, and noticing how the artist used line to convey emotion.

Personal Connections: What Is a Monster?
After viewing the exhibit, students considered definitions for monsters by returning to the central question: What is a monster? Through dialogue and collaboration, we concluded that a monster might represent difference—often the rule breaker, the outsider, or someone with power.

Students noticed that artists used different techniques to establish the presence of a monster. Mismatched bodies, distortion, animal characteristics, and emotional cues such as fear, despair, and beauty revealed how artists may have felt about monsters.

With support, students made personal connections to themselves, the world around them, and to other artworks and stories. Themes such as duality, identity, belonging, and societal norms emerged through discussion. Using a variety of printmaking techniques, including monoprinting with acrylic sheets and relief printing with foam and lino, students explored how varied lines convey meaning.

Viewing the exhibit became a catalyst for students to respond through observation and interpretation, while making personal connections.

Silly, scary, and serious monsters all came alive in student artwork. Viewing the exhibit became a catalyst for students to respond through observation and interpretation, while making personal connections. Final relief-printed monsters illustrated duality and complexity, drawing on symbolism, personal experiences, and mythology.

Perceiving and Making Meaning: Are Monsters Misunderstood?
Students explored and viewed artwork, created their own pieces, responded to one anotherʼs work, and made connections throughout the process. Through this series of activities, it became clear that students had a vast capacity for meaningful ideation. These varied encounters with the creative process encouraged more holistic learning and assessment.

A final exhibition of grade seven, eight, and nine visual responses, The Monsters, celebrated a diversity of ideas and identities, as well as techniques and expressive use of line. Unconventional artist statements offered further insight into the studentsʼ stories, symbolism, and creative choices. It was clear that different artists came to different conclusions, and that the monsters reflected both differences and similarities among peers, teachers, and viewers.

While some students were rigorously focused on strong technique and refined detail, often through layered reduction prints, others made especially poignant personal connections.

One student, Adeline, wrote: “She is by design clearly feminine, nonthreatening, and someone you’d see on the honor roll. However, the other side shows duality in her character. Around the left side of her neck is a clock with a heavy chain, used to symbolize the weight of pressure and time. Her mouth is stitched shut to indicate her inability to express herself. This metaphor represents the life of an overachiever. What it’s like to live from one school project to the next, a sort of cycle of misery that splits her in two.”

Student choice promotes greater engagement, inclusivity, and communication. Through annotations, symbols, prose, and dialogue, students reflected powerfully on both process and product, sharing insights, connections, and analysis.

Artists to Study

• Carolyn Gerk—contemporary illustrator and printmaker
• Lou Benesch—contemporary illustrator and printmaker
• Odilon Redon—Symbolist painter and printmaker
• Wosnan—street artist and illustrator

Zoey Graf is a visual arts specialist at Calgary Girls Charter School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. zoey.graf@mycgcs.ca