Making Connections through Personal Expression

Ideas are like flowers—they are everywhere and can take all sorts of forms. Sometimes you see a great artwork or project or something from an online post and it sparks an idea. Maybe I get an idea from a concept I need to include in my curriculum or from something the science teacher puts out on display, such as models of cells. Sometimes I even see something that gives me an idea while I’m shopping.

Ultimately, there is an end product, but that's not the most important part of the lesson. For me, projects need to include the following:

Connections to art concepts (history, elements of art, principles of design, vocabulary, techniques).
Connections to the student’s point of view or experience (choice).
Connections to core content.

Connections to Art Concepts
We should always be interjecting vocabulary and understandings from our own content area. We are in a school environment and held accountable to a curriculum and standards.

In the example of tree silhouettes here, we could consider concepts such as monochromatic color, cool colors, point of view, color blending, positive and negative space, overlapping, and depth. If you incorporate reflected light on the branches, you add the element of light. Historically, both Salvador Dalí and René Magritte created trees and plants with items hidden within the negative and positive spaces. For a contemporary example, the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium has a great logo of a tree with animals hidden within the negative space.

Connections to the Student
Student choice and connections to what they create is important. As the teacher, we may like an idea and feel it is good for students, but we have to make sure there’s room for personal input.

For the bulk of what we do, personal expression is key to students buying into the process, internalizing information, and learning beyond a superficial level.
This is where the deeper problem solving happens, where art education shines in its benefits. Working through the process of incorporating or translating their feelings, ideas, and thoughts into their artworks requires students to solve visual problems at the deepest levels.

In my example of a moon theme painting, students can begin by making a list of things they value, then create symbols for those things. As they sketch, they hide symbols in the positive and negative spaces of the branches. If you want to interject more choice, students could choose a color scheme to express if they are a night owl or an early bird. This would mean they could create a sun as opposed to a moon, or maybe even an undiscovered planet!

Connections to Core Content
Incorporating core content may seem like an unfamiliar idea, but we already do it. We need to tease out this part and show it to students in a concrete way. This may just take thirty seconds to explain, or longer if you want to dig deeper into the concepts.

When we grid, measure, and draw, we use geometry. When we make sculptures, we use engineering. When we mix colors, we reveal information about physics. When we create illustrations for stories, we learn about literature. When we review the styles of art from da Vinci to Banksy, we teach history. When we write about art, we strengthen these skills. When we create works of art, we solve complex visual problems in creative ways.

For the moon project, there are many video options available, like the one from The Science Channel on YouTube titled “The Secret of the Dark Side of the Moon” and a sixteen-minute video from PBS on YouTube called “History Detectives, Moon Museum” (see Resources). Other core connections may be added. For example, students could use a compass to create the moon and the class could have a short discussion about how to find the volume or radius of a circle. Students could solve and write the volume on the back of their work as extra credit or as a required element.

These four parts (an idea, art concepts, personal connections, and core content) come together to make a choice-based project. Certainly more choice could be incorporated, such as letting students choose their own color scheme, media, subject (moon, sun, or other planet), and other kinds of objects to incorporate into the silhouette.