Not so long ago I posted above picture of one of my sculptures to my Facebook page.
Many people shared this post, one of which was my wonderful sister-in-law Jaime. With her share she commented,
“My brother in law is a very hard-working artist. (I refuse to say talented because it’s a loaded word for him 😉.) Here is one of his latest.”
And she is right. Talented is a loaded word for me. It’s not that I mind people saying that I am talented. I know that when people say this they really are trying to give me a sincere compliment. It is just that my definition of talented is very different than many peoples. So this got me thinking and then it got me writing and now it has become the blog post you are reading. If you have never thought much about talent or what the word really means then this might be an eye opening post for you. If you disagree with the things I write, I’d like to hear about it in the comments below. Likewise, if you agree with what I say or have something to add, I‘d also like to hear about it in the comments.
So why is “Talented” a loaded word? Well, first let me tell you that I probably have more conversations about his word then your average human being. Probably because I am an artist and art teacher and people often use “talented” to describe someone who is good at any of the arts. It can apply to any other skill but for some reason people just don’t use the word as much in other fields. I doubt many people who are good at math get told how talented they are but that is what it is isn’t it? I have known some very talented mathematicians, much more talented at math than I am. Anyway, the point is, this word comes up a lot in my conversations, pretty much on a daily basis. So although I can’t read minds and I don’t always know exactly what people mean when they say it, I think I can draw some pretty accurate conclusions.
Now before I write to much, this post needs a disclaimer. I consider myself a hard working and talented individual. I just don’t often talk about myself as talented. For the sake of this post I am talented person and I feel prideful every time I say it but the truth of it is I have worked very hard to develop my talents and I am still working hard. So… If I talk about being talented I am not being cocky, I am just writing a post. Now with that out of the way I can talk about me being talented without feeling too strange.
There are three main beliefs people have about talent, and you probably belong to one of these camps. First there are the people who believe that you have it or you don’t. You were either born with talent or you weren’t. Second there are the people who believe that talent comes and goes and one must wait around to be inspired or just get lucky before they can do something truly talented. And Third, there are those who believe that all talents can be developed with hard work and determination and that developing your talents is what makes you talented. If you know me at all or have read any of my other blog posts its not hard to tell which of these camps I spend most of my time in. Although I think there is some truth to all three of these beliefs there is one that will always trump the others.
You Either Have it or you Don’t
The Havedon’ts (as I will call them) will often fiercely defend their belief. They are certain that some people are just born better at some things. When I tell them that I couldn’t even hold a pencil when I was born they just look at me like I am stupid. They often point out people like Mozart, or Michelangelo. People who were very talented at a young age. What they fail to recognize is the hard work that these individuals put in before they were ever recognized for their talent. Sure they were recognized young but they also worked their butts off young.
Havedon’ts will also say things like “no matter how much I practice basket ball I will never be in the NBA because I just don’t have the physical body for it, I’m not tall enough.” Really? Muggsy Bogues was only 5-3 and he was in the NBA. Most men in America are taller then that. Then they say “well… What about people with other physical limitations? Like what about someone who can’t walk?” Yes, I understand… Some people could be more physically inclined to do some things, but the Havedon’ts are missing the point. Their focus is in the wrong place. Rather then focusing on the things that they can do and work hard to get better at they make up excuses why they shouldn’t try. Havedon’ts tell themselves that they aren’t talented at something so there is no hope for them. Or that they physically can’t do it so what’s the point. With the wonderful internet it is not hard to find people who have overcome their physical limitations to develop their talents. here’s just one example:
Now wasn’t that amazing!?! Don’t you think it would have been easy for that boy to say to himself “I don’t have any hands, I will never be able to play the piano.” Yet he did it anyway! I would even go as far to say that he is talented!
Sometimes the Havedon’ts will even use God as their excuse. They say that God gave everyone different gifts. Is this true?… I believe it is! But, I’m not going to use it as an excuses to not try something, or put forth the effort to develop my talents. The Havedon’ts think that because they can’t currently play piano well, then God must have not blessed them with that talent. How can we really know what those God given Talents are if we give up before we ever try? And trust me… trying once isn’t enough.
I always know when I am talking to a die hard believer in this because after they tell me how talented I am they always follow it up with “ I could never be as talented as you”. or they might say, “I would love to learn to do that but I just don’t have the talent.”See what I mean!?! Another excuse! What does this belief really help? Nothing that I can see. It is an excuse people tell themselves to make them feel justified in their lack of trying to develop their own talents. When you are confident in your own talents and have worked hard to develop them you wont be putting yourself down because of other peoples talents. You will recognize their talent and respect them for it, because you know how much effort I took to develop that talent. If you see something you think looks enjoyable you will try your hardest to get good at it.
Interestingly people who are truly talented at something rarely belong to this group. Why do you think that might be?
It comes and goes with inspiration and Luck
Honestly this isn’t one that I hear when people are talking about talent, However it is a very common belief had amongst amateur artists. These Luckies think they need to wait around for some divine inspiration before they can do something worthy of calling talent. These are people who feel like they have talent but hold it in reserve until the moment is right and some stroke of inspiration hits them and they are suddenly talented again. These are also people who don’t ever really develop their talents because they never work on them until they feel inspired to do so. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that inspiration doesn’t exist. I have moments of inspiration when everything falls in place. I also know that I have much more inspiration when I am actively working on developing my talents.
You may not know this about me but I am a song writer. In my teens I used to come home from school and write a new song every day. Most of them were rubbish but every so often I would get inspired and write a fairly decent song. Now that I am older I rarely take the time to write songs. How much song writing inspiration do you think that I get now? Like… none. It’s because I am not actively writing songs any more. Do you see what I mean. The times when I am developing my talents are the times I am inspired. If you want to read more about this topic I have other blog posts about it here:
If you haven’t figured it out already this is the line of thinking that should hold the most weight. It’s nice to believe that you were given unique talents from birth, It’s also nice to believe that you can be inspired to do great things, but the truth is those things mean nothing without hard work and determination. Ask anybody who is truly talented at anything and I am positive they worked very hard to get that way and if they tell you otherwise they are lying.
Honestly I am slightly offended when someone tells me that I was just born this way. Was the last 30 years of hard work for nothing then?
Yes! I was doing some fantastic artwork in my youth. I also spent many hours working on those skills and talents. There were plenty of times I would set aside doing things like hanging out with friends so I could work on my art projects. It was that exciting to me! I was that passionate about it. I am still working hard to develop my talents. I work so hard it consumes my life! Nearly every waking moment I am either working on sculpture or thinking about sculpting. At random moments during the day my wife can ask “What sculpture are you thinking about now?” and I can always tell her.
Some might say “What about God then? Don’t you believe God gave you your talents?” Yes! I do. From a very early age I have had a passion to create. I firmly believe that this passion was a God given passion. At first my “talent” looked just like any other child. I would scribble on a piece of paper much like every other child in the world. However… maybe there was something different about me. It wasn’t in the actual artwork but the way I felt when I did it. I enjoyed doing it more then most other children. Because I enjoyed it so much I would do it more often then other kids.Now guess what happens when you practice doing something more than others do? Thats right… you get better at it! Because God gave me this passion he also gave me the desire to work at my passion and develop my talents. Sure enough, God has helped me along the way, as I have worked hard to get better.
When you see someone who paints a beautiful picture, does a fantastic dance, writes a thought provoking poem, can solve complex math equations, or can consistently make 3 pointers, all you are seeing is the end result. You don’t see the hours spent on that painting. You don’t see the years of practice. You don’t see the thousands of mistakes and fixes. You don’t see the mental and emotional turmoil. You don’t see the nights lying awake thinking about it. You don’t see the time they sacrificed.
So I guess that is why the word “talented” is such a loaded word for me. It takes a lot of hard work and determination to become talented and that is something many people fail to recognize.
So next time you want to tell someone how talented they are maybe you should think about saying it a different way. Maybe you should say, “Wow! You must have worked so hard to get that good! You have really developed your talents!”
I guarantee this will be a much better compliment then simply saying they are talented.
I will leave you with the famous words of my very hard working and therefore talented high school pottery teacher Jerry Hendershot.
“Hard work and determination will trump natural talent every time.”
Just the other day, as I was helping a student she said, “I just suck at this.” Believe it or not but this kind of talk is very common for young artists. Maybe you have even said something like it yourself. My response to this was “You don’t suck. You’re just learning!” I don’t know if that got through to her or not but it made me think. And sometimes when I get thinking, it turns into a blog post. So here it is.
Not too long ago I had a frustrated student say “Some people just have a lot of natural…” At this point I thought he was going to finish by saying “Natural talent and, I’m not one of them” (The myth of natural talent coming in a future blog post) But that is not what he said. He said, “Natural suckage, and I am one of them”. I was shocked! Did this student actually believe that there was such a thing as “Natural Suckage”? To my surprise there were some other students in the room who started agreeing with him. Natural Suckage! Really? I knew that there was a problem with negative talk among some of my students but this is when I realized how big the problem really was. These students were not just saying this out of frustration but deep down they really believed it. Because what I do is very skill based I hear these kinds of things a lot. I am sure that it is not just in my art class either. I am sure people are saying these types of things no matter what skill they are learning whether it is Art, Music, Math, Cooking, Soccer, or anything else that requires you to work hard to learn a specific skill. Not being very skilled at something isn’t the problem. The problem comes when you believe that you can’t learn a skill simply because you suck.
This goes beyond just thinking that you aren’t any good at something. It is the belief that you can’t get better. I recently had a student who was taking his turn on the pottery wheel. Because of my class size, the amount of classes in the semester and the limited number of pottery wheels we have in the classroom each student only gets two days on the wheel. Because it is so short of a time and not nearly enough time to really learn how to throw on the wheel I expect my students to make the most of those two days and spend the entire class working. After about 30 minutes into the first day this student stormed off in frustration. He threw his hands in the air and said “I can’t do this, It’s too hard” my immediate response was “Well… you have to try” still frustrated he snaps back “I did try. I tried three times and I couldn’t get the clay centered.” I will admit, I may not have handled the situation the best because all I could do was laugh and say “Three times! Try 300!” he didn’t think it was very funny but the point still stands. Anything worth doing is going to require work and trying something three times is hardly trying at all. Needless to say this student never got back on the wheel.
These students have what I will call “Imagined Natural Suckage” As I explained before, there is no such thing as natural suckage.
So now that we have identified the problem, how do we go about changing a long ingrained belief system in my students, or in myself, or you for that matter? It is something that I have spent many hours pondering and trying to help my students overcome.
Here are a few ways that I have found to overcome the feeling of “Imaginary Natural Suckage”. These point’s don’t only apply to learning art but they can apply to anything you are trying to get better at, whether it is artistic, sports, parenting, music, math, writing, etc. #1 Stop comparing yourself to others
There will always be someone better then you at something. You will never be the best at everything. The point is to be the best that you can be and eventually, if you work really hard, you might get to the point where you actually are the best at something. Of course when you are to that point you most likely won’t even think you are because you will see how much better you want to be. I see students all the time who will take their first art class and immediately start comparing themselves to the students who have been drawing there whole life. If you have ever done this you are being unfair to yourself. Stop now. You be you, and try your hardest, and that will always be good enough. #2 Commit to practicing
Getting good at something takes time. When I told my student “try 300” I wasn’t exaggerating. In fact go further… try 3,000. I can guarantee your 3,000th pot will be better than your 300th. If you are learning a new instrument give yourselves 5 years. Then see how well you can play. Anybody who has dedicated a significant amount of time to an instrument will tell you that the first year of playing is barely scratching the surface of your potential. How many of us quite after the first month? Apathy is a killer. Some people will say they just don’t care about anything enough to commit that much time and effort to it. Well… you need to start somewhere. Find something you enjoy doing and in the process of practicing and years of working at your skill you will become passionate about it. #3 Stop the negative self talk
Your words influence your beliefs and your beliefs influence your words. If you are not careful it is a never ending spiral downward till you are drowning in negativity. You need to make a conscious effort to stop negative self talk. And if you ever find yourself saying that you stink at something you need to counteract it with saying something positive. Turn what you said negative around and say something positive. This might seem silly but it is important. Some people who aren’t experienced with positive affirmations will think it is silly because they don’t do it right. They will turn the negative “I suck at drawing” into “I am the best drawer ever!” Do they believe this? Of course not! And as they are saying it they know they are lying to themselves. The goal is not to lie to yourself but to positively build yourself up with something that you can actually believe. Turn “I suck at drawing” into “I can work hard to get better at drawing.” See… much more believable. Don’t turn “This is hard” into “this is easy” because it’s not. Instead turn “This is hard” into “I can do hard things”
My wife likes to ask herself questions instead of statements. If she ever finds herself being negative about something like getting our kids to help around the house, she won’t say “I’m so frustrated! These kids never help with anything!” Instead she asks “How do I get these kids to clean up so well?” When you ask yourself questions your mind will work overtime, even subconsciously to help you come up with a solution. This can be a very powerful kind of positive affirmation. #4 Meditate
A big part of the problem is anxiety. I see people get anxious about all sorts of things. In my classroom I see students get nervous and frustrated after they have made one line on a piece of paper. That line might have taken them 10 minutes to finally build up the courage to draw and now they feel like their line doesn’t look good enough and when I walk around near them they immediately cover up their paper so I can’t see their “Imaginary Suckage”. These students have Anxiety.
If we think in terms of energy, Anxiety is when our energy is dispersed and we have many problems going on in our minds and hearts that our energy is trying to fix and worry about. Often times those problems are also imaginary but to an anxious person imagined or not, the problems still feel the same. When we are anxious we are worried about multiple things while trying to concentrate on another and then wondering what might happen when, or if, something else happens, none of which you seem to have any control over which makes you more anxious. Our energy is not being productive because it is trying to do too many things at once. And, in the end whatever you were trying to do ends up failing. Then our “Imaginary Natural Suckage” has been confirmed and our belief becomes even more ingrained.
Meditation is a great way to overcome anxiety. There are many purposes and benefits to meditation but in this case what we are trying to do is focus our energy and apply it to the task at hand. This is not a blog post about various methods of mediation, so I will not go into detail on ways to meditate but I encourage you to research methods yourself. Maybe that would be a good topic for another blog post. I will often teach my students a few meditation techniques to help with anxiety. There are always some who think it’s silly but a good amount of my students love it. Every once in a while I will catch one of my students sitting there in the position I taught them with their eyes closed and breathing slowly. These students are tuning everything out around them and focusing their energy to their artwork. Once they are finished they get to work. And guess what. When they aren’t anxious they do great work that they are proud of.
So I repeat… You don’t suck. You are just learning!
I hope these point’s are able to help you in some aspect of your life. Do you have any other things that have helped you overcome the feelings of “Natural Suckage”? If you do, let me know in the comments below. If you think this post could help someone else please share it with them.
This being my first post in 2016 I would usually make it a post all about my Goals as an artist so you can help me follow through and give encouragement with what I plan to do this year. However I have some exciting news that needs to be announced. Don’t worry I will get to my goals at the end of my post and you can still give me encouragement.
Months ago I announced that I did not receive a commission to create my sculpture for Meridian Idaho titled “Out on the Town”. You can read more about that HERE. It was a sad thing because Meridian is my home town and I really really wanted to do this sculpture.
Today I am pleased to announce that I will be doing the sculpture after all! And in many ways it is even better then what I thought I would be. Today I would like to tell you the story of this sculpture and my story of how I received this commission and hopefully it will inspire you to be persistent in your efforts.
Really it started back when I was a small child. I grew up in the wonderful town of Meridian, Idaho. Honestly this is a great place to live and grow up. My house was a couple miles away from down town Meridian. My older siblings and I would often walk or ride bikes the two miles to town so we could go to Albertsons Grocery store and buy some candy. Head over to the Burger den for lunch and Ice cream. Walk across the street to Payless drug store and look at toys. I loved these times and It made me feel so responsible and grown up.
Right in the middle of all these stores was an intersection where there was a large triangular shaped concrete area. I remember walking and driving by this area and always thinking to myself, “They should put a sculpture there.” I had no aspirations at that time to become a sculpture although I was very interested in art.
Years later I find out that the city of Meridian had plans to expand the road and restructure the intersection. They would be removing the triangle but with the new construction they also had plans to install a sculpture at the same corner. Not only that but I just happened to be a sculptor! Woo-Hoo! This project was meant for me!
I applied for the RFQ (Request for qualifications) but I didn’t make it past the first round. It was a bummer but I soon got over it realizing it was still very early in my career and I was up against many other much more experienced sculptors. About a year later they opened up the RFQ again! I wasn’t sure whybut apparently they didn’t end up commissioning any artists earlier on and now they were trying again. So I applied once again, sure that they re opened it because this project was really meant for me.
Just like the first time I didn’t make it past the first round. Yet again I was sad because I really thought this project was meant for me. I got over it and for a couple years I spent time studying sculpture and developing my passion for sculpture. In this time I had been a finalist for some public sculpture projects as well as did a few other smaller public art pieces. Just this past summer I received an email from the Meridian Arts council telling me that they Opened up the project but this time it was an RFP (Request for Proposals). However the entry deadline was just a couple days away.
If you have ever applied for a public art project before you will know that an RFP takes much more time and effort then an RFQ. I quickly came up with a concept for my sculpture, found some models to take pictures of and drew up some sketches. I sent in my application and hoped for the best. A little bit later I was notified that I was a finalist for the project. I was very excited! Looking at the other finalists I figured I had a pretty good shot at it this time. In fact I was confident I would get this commission. The time came and they notified me once again that I was not Chosen! This was the third time I had been rejected for this same project!
A few days wen’t by and I still wasn’t feeling any better about it. So on a whim I wrote a letter to the Meridian Arts Council. I said that I was really hoping to get the commission and that I am still interested in creating this sculpture for Meridian. If there is ever an opportunity to do a sculpture such as this I asked that they would let me know. to my surprise they emailed me back and let me know that everyone loved my sculpture and they already had on the next meetings agenda to talk about raising money to commission my sculpture for a different location. They said they wanted to put my sculpture in an area where people could get close to it and touch it and really interact with it. The street corner was not a place they wanted that to be happening.
After months of figuring things out, raising money, and working out the details I am pleased to tell you that the contract was signed on Tuesday and I will be installing the finished bronze sculpture in September.
The sculpture will be installed just outside of Meridian City Hall. Although it is not the same place I envisioned when I was a kid, It is a much more prominent location where people will be able to get up close and interact with my sculpture.
I am excited to document the process so you can see the work that goes into making a sculpture for a public area. And let me tell you… it’s a whole lot more than just making a sculpture.
So that brings me to this years goals…
Now every year I look at my goals in a different way. I have read all sorts of things about goal setting and how to set good achievable goals. And, although there are many good hints on how to do that I still feel like sometime you just need to do what feels right. Last year I only had one goal and that was to do a blog post every week. Did it happen? No. However, I did write many posts over the course of the year and it helped me and my art career in many ways. So here is my list for 2016
Win at least 2 public art commissions (I already have one)
Apply to 4 art shows
And hopefully do 3 of them, because two of them are on the same weekend. The shows I plan to apply to are the Jackson Hole Art Fair, Sun Valley Art Festival, Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake, and the Park City Art Festival.
Teach some sculpture workshops.
I already have one scheduled in Jackson Hole. If you are interested in attending that workshop click HERE. If you would like me to be a visiting artist and teach a workshop near you please notify me, and I can see what I can do.
Publish at least 2 Online sculpture courses.
Continue Blogging
I hope you have been inspired by my story and I hope you will continue to follow along with me this year. We can help each other with inspiration an encouragement. Thanks!
Well… here it is. The last blog post of the year. Well at least I am starting it before the year is over. I hope to get it posted before next year starts. If you are joining the blog for the first time this will be a good post to catch you up on everything that has happened this year. If you have been following the blog for a while then you will hear some new stuff seeing as how I haven’t posted in a few months now. Now… I am pleased to share with you
Daniel Borup’s Magnificent Year in Review Blog Post 2015!
Let me start by saying, this is the first post of this kind I have written seeing as how I only really started blogging at the beginning of this year. In fact getting this blog up and going was my new years resolution. I will talk more about that next week.
Although there is tons to write about this post is to give you a quick overview of the highlights of 2015, so hear it goes.
The year started off good with this sculpture of a lion I did…
Then I finished my Good Samaritan Sculpture. I entered it into the International LDS Art Competition and didn’t get in. That’s okay though because it has turned out to be one of my better selling sculptures. In fact you can purchase a casting of this sculpture here: http://www.danielborup.com/product/the-good-samaritan-2/
Then I did my second artist residency at the Idaho Art Lab. This was a fantastically productive and inspiring time. During that residency I sculpted this…
And This…
Which is a small maquette of this…
I cleaned and organized my studio
Man I wish is looked this clean now!
I also had a booth at the Jackson Hole Art Fair which was pretty sweet.
I won best of show at the Eastern Idaho State Fair
I sculpted a bust of John F. Shelley for the City of Shelley Idaho.
I sculpted some giant busts of Adam and Eve…
I made some sweet videos like this one:
You can see other videos right here: www.danielborup.com/videos/
Then to end the year off I had a solo exhibition open in the Carr Gallery in Idaho Falls. The show features 32 of my works and is still open until January 10th. So if you haven’t seen it yet please go. http://www.idahofallsarts.org/daniel-borup
Last but not least is my gift to you. I am holding a sculpture giveaway contest which is ending tomorrow. If you haven’t entered yet please do so now. It’s free to enter and you could start off your year winning a sculpture from me! Here is a link to the contest: http://www.danielborup.com/contest/
It has been a crazy amazing year. I just scratched the surface of all the great things that happened this year. I made tons of sculpture and worked to inspire lives. Thank you for being a part of it and I hope you will continue to be a part of my life next year. Stick around and I will do everything I can to inspire you with art in 2016, making it the best year ever!
Comments are welcome.
I was recently interviewed by a woman taking an Art Education class at a local college. Although I don’t remember the specific questions that were asked the general idea of most of the questions were “why is art important in our schools?” Honestly this is a question that I have struggled to answer ever since I have become a teacher. It is a topic that has spawned a lot of national debate and may school districts have cut their art programs. I have always felt like it was important but I just had a hard time explaining why. I don’t get asked this question very often so I have never had to put it into words like I did during this interview. I think I was able to explain myself pretty well but now that I have had a few days to think it over I want to explain a few reasons to you why art is so important for our schools. For the sake of this post when I say art I am often talking about the Arts in general including music, theater, and dance. Art deals with the aesthetic experience
As defined by Sir Ken Robinson in his speech Changing Education Paradigms, an “aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak, when you’re present in the current moment, when you’re resonating with the excitement of this thing that you’re experiencing, when you’re fully alive.” And the Arts are the classes that focus on these experiences.
An Aesthetic Experience is when you are so taken with the beauty of an object, Idea, situation, or simply life itself that the only real words to explain it are “Wow!” People often have aesthetic experiences when they listen to music, experience nature, view artwork, are fascinated by the details of life, have an epiphany, read a good book, and many other instances. Really you can have an aesthetic experience anywhere and at any time. Even in school but especially in art.
In my opinion aesthetic experiences are what make life worth living. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that it is not possible to have an aesthetic experience in other classes, but those other classes are not focused on those experiences like Art is. How often does a math teacher talk about the way an equation makes you feel? Or how often does an anatomy teacher teach about how beautifully the human body is proportioned and how similar we are yet different all at the same time? Art teaches students to recognize when you are having an aesthetic experience, and the more you recognize it the more often they occur and the fuller life you live. Art teaches creativity
Every teacher in every school struggles to incorporate creative thinking into their subjects. Creativity is a skill that is diminishing drastically as the years go by. There are many reasons for this drop in creativity. Some will blame it on electronic devices, television, non creative toys, helicopter parenting, and even the schooling system. In reality it is probably a combination of these and other factors.
There is no better place to teach creativity in schools than the Art classroom. It is not that other teachers can’t teach about creativity as it applies to their subject, but all too often they don’t. There is a common myth that people think they are unable to learn creativity. And if they don’t have it then they don’t have it. This is a lie but many people believe it anyway. If I were to ask teachers in my school if they were creative I am confident a majority would say no. As an Art teacher I have taken it upon myself to teach creativity. In no other classroom in the school is creativity so encouraged and accepted. Simply put, Art Teaches creativity like no other subject can, and creativity is a skill that can and should be applied to every aspect of life. Art teaches about visual culture.
In today’s world we are constantly bombarded with visual stimuli. Everywhere we go there are advertisements screaming at you, videos, graphic design, fashion, and many other visual things vying for your attention. Art class is the only class that attempts to scratch the surface of educating students on visual culture. With visual culture so much a part of our lives it would be ridiculous to think we don’t need some sort of a visual education. Art gives other subjects application
I was just telling my wife last night how I am very into Anatomy and learning the muscles and bones, but if it wasn’t for my interest in art I don’t think I would care about anatomy at all. For students who have an interest in art there are many parallels that can be drawn from other subjects. Correlations include math as we practice proportions and perspective drawing. Science as we mix glazes and paint. Anatomy as we learn how to draw and sculpt the human body. Literature as we are inspired by poetry and other works. History as we learn about artist and artist movements in history. Art gives an outlet for many students who are not interested in other things.
In a quick informal survey of my students I asked “why is it important to have art in school” they didn’t need time to think about it, they immediately blurted out reasons it is important to them. Some said things like “because it teaches us how to express ourselves better” others said things like “it gives us a relaxing break from boring classes”. This was an advanced class full of kids who enjoyed art. For many of these students art is the reason why they come to school. It was much the same for me. I really struggled in school growing up and art was the only class I felt I belonged. It was the only class that kept me going to school. Some might argue that there are other ways to give students an outlet, and they are right. There are extracurricular sports, cooking, agriculture classes. all of which can fill that same roll. However there are still students who have a need and thirst for the arts and those other classes simply will not do.
This by no means is an extensive list of reasons why art is important in schools but I think they are some pretty solid reasons. I’d like to know what you think. What are some reasons you think art is important to schools… or not. I’d love to hear your comments.
