VTS II, Blog Topic #15

Prior to reading the Gnezda article I don’t suppose I ever considered the sequence of the ‘cognitive-emotional-manipulative experience’. As I read, ever-present yellow Sharpie gel highlighter in hand, I was continually marking, probably in a predictable way, and noting ‘YES!’ in the margins. Asking myself, “How DID this person get inside my head?” I was thrilled to affirm, ‘By Jove, by Gnezda’s description of processes, I AM A HIGHLY CREATIVE PERSON!’ I am a total poster child for the description in this article – daydreamer, heck yes! I doodle during staff meetings, half a mind paying attention, the other half noting random associations to the topic discussed. My best thoughts occur either in the shower or while driving. I keep a journal of squiggles, words, a strange documentation of ideas that would probably appear the ramblings of an insane woman should anyone else ever attempt to decipher the contents. Now I have official studies to support the claim, “My brain was too busy thinking about other things to be bothered with something as mundane as paying the phone bill.” I agree whole-heartedly that it is much more fun to come up with the ideas than to actually execute them. (Hence my gigantic collection of supplies!) The disparity between getting what I see in my head to a finished product is indeed hard work. I doubt, I question, I become discouraged and, as Gnezda writes, the final result never quite measures up to that original inspiration.

It’s absolutely thrilling to be a part of the art education paradigm shift. I cannot deny that the methods I learned thirty years ago, with a serious emphasis on technique, have done little to prepare my students for the world of today and the world of their future. I cringe in recalling the times I deprived students the opportunities to experience that low-energy idea search, the times I robbed them that joy of illumination. (OUCH, please accept my apologies former students!)

It has been my goal throughout this unit to select images which strongly conveyed a theme of ‘Story”. Hopefully the VTS experiences gave students the opportunity to experience open-end exploration from a personal point of view. Hopefully VTS allowed them the opportunity to make those random associations both from their own ideas as well as from those of their peers.

Gnezda states, “…creative processes do not progress smoothly.” That’s definitely something I need to make my students aware of, and should I ever be tempted to get a tattoo, I’d get that phrase inked on the inside of my forearm! Students had no problems recalling a time of change in their life, no problems translating the idea into a written plan. They struggled however with the concept of how the written plan could tell a visual story. They weren’t used to the open-endedness of the assignment. I was exhausted as I attempted to coach them individually into understanding. My early finishers rushed right in and completed drawings, which did not convey any story. I taught and retaught. Students had the opportunity to create many drafts, the opportunity to play with ideas. In the end, most of them ‘got it’. There were a handful whose drawing skills are not strong enough for me, or anyone else for that matter, to communicate their story. I think using VTS as a peer assessment was somewhat helpful, but there came a point where I realized that if THEY understood their drawing, that had to be good enough for me. 

As a Week 15 Bonus please check out this TED video 

Sunni Brown: Doodlers, unite!