Improv Everywhere - I love this.

This is by a group called Improv Everywhere. In it, they have a bunch of people freeze in place at Grand Central Station in New York, and then continue as if nothing happened.

I love this sort of thing because it jolts us out of our daily routine. In New York, this sort of thing probably doesn't phase people much. But look at all those people bustling about their daily business, suddenly stopping to wonder what's going on.

I think this is a great example of unleashing the creative beast.

(This video is kid-friendly. If you are a kid, and you click to YouTube from here, you better have the permission of your parents!)

Art - It's not just for test scores any more!

These days, the way you justify something in education is you show it improves test scores. So, for art to be valuable, it has to make kids better at math. Or reading. Or make them whizzes at multiple choice. In short, for art to be good for you, it has to make you better at NON-art things.

Huh?

What a bunch of poop.

Fortunately, there are great folks like The Wallace Foundation who make big documents proving that all to be hogwash. Since it's not likely you'll read a 104-page foundation report anytime soon, I'll summarize a really great one called "Gifts of the Muse - Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts."

What it says is:

The arts benefit us in a whole spectrum of ways, and we're ignoring a lot of it to our own detriment because we're hung up on test scores and economic growth... which make up only a tiny sliver of life experience.

Here's more of the spectrum:

- The arts create social bonds. We externalize our thoughts and feelings by making and looking at art and media. We tell people what is inside our heads and hearts.

- The arts create communal meaning. We get a shared vocabulary for our experiences. Napoleon Dynamite is a great example. So is Star Wars. So is Knuffle Bunny.

- The arts build a capacity for empathy. We see other people expressing themselves, and we are encouraged to do it too. We react to other people's art and we experience having others interpret our own ideas.

- The arts make you take responsibility for your actions. You make something, you decide if it's what you wanted, you start over or you turn it into something else. Nobody can decide this for you.

That's the super-short version. But I love the way they've framed it. Culture is not made out of money or test scores or college admissions. It's made out of shared experience and self-expression. Yay for the Wallace Foundation!

Funky Diagram - The Last Part

Alright, we're to the last part of the funky diagram. Here's the last post I did on it, in case you didn't memorize it....

Anyway, the last part is How To Communicate To Others. This might be the touchiest part of being a young person making pictures, because it seems like so often people don't see your work exactly as you would like them to.

When kids are Kindergarten age, they are storytellers. They love to draw and talk at the same time, and they don't mind if you ask what things are.

But later, this isn't so easy. Because if you ask what something is, then it means that you can't tell by looking at it. And if you can't tell by looking at it, there must be something wrong with the drawing.

Hm.

This is such an important point. Because when we read a book, we create that book's story inside our own heads. And no two people create the exact same story. Even when we see a movie, we all take different things away from it.

And, so much of what we see every day is designed to get us to think a certain way - billboards, advertisements, television shows - they are all meant to communicate something.

When we draw, it's very personal. So, having someone misinterpret or make fun of your drawing is the same as making you invisible or picking on you.

So the key is, when you see someone drawing, to simply look and react and encourage. Because this can mean the difference between a child continuing to draw and develop those brain cells and putting down the pencil for good.

Here are good things to say to a kid, whether it's your kid or your friend or your friend's kid, about his or her drawings:

"It looks like you put a lot of thought and work into that."

"I like this part. Can you tell me more about it?"

"What is going on here?"

"How did you decide to draw it that way?"

Things that are not so good to say include sentences that start with "That reminds me of..." or "I like your horse!" (When it's really a dog). So don't talk yourself into a corner by trying to tell what the drawing is. Let the artist take care of that.

Earth Art

Happy Earth Day!

We've all seen kids' eyes light up when presented with a new box of crayons or pens that they haven't tried before.

And while I do think that we do an awfully good job of training people to want new things in our society (see my last post on "The Story of Stuff"), I think that this goes a little deeper - kids are naturally drawn to new things to try and to manipulate.

And one of the best places to get that sort of thing is... outside! (I know, you thought I was going to say Target.)

Seriously... the outdoors is full of stuff to pick up, manipulate, throw, and draw with. It's like a giant box of art supplies. A sandy beach is a fabulous blank sheet. And it gets erased automatically! And dirt is great too. And sticks and rocks can be used to make just about anything.

So next time you're looking for a new medium to use, maybe put off getting yet another set of pens or Play-Doh. Just try going outside.

Great use of Animation - The Story of Stuff

I just finished watching this 20 minute presentation on "The Story of Stuff." It does a great job explaining where all our consumer stuff comes from, and why it happens that way. I think many kids can absorb this information -- mainly because it's supported with really simple, straightforward animation. In fact, it's so simple most people could probably draw most of the figures themselves.

So, watch this with your family - both for the information in it, and for the simple style that's used to show the information. You don't have to be Pixar to make great animation or to use animation to tell a great story.

Run, Shark, Run!

If you've spent any time at all around kids drawing, you may notice that there is a whole lot of, well, violence going on. Even the littlest ones will say, "See, this one's on fire, and this one blew that one up, and that's the flames coming out..." or whatever. Things explode, people end up dead, there are bombs, and fires, and all sorts of destructive events.

I think that this stuff comes from the same part of your brain that contains slapstick humor, the part that tells you that falling on your butt or hitting yourself in the head (or better yet, hitting someone else in the head) is funny.

And, I'm going to think about it more, but I'm guessing that these are really really short stories. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. Something bad happens, then something blows up, then someone dies. Or their head comes off. It's a great way to get a reaction from your audience too. Because if you're like me you end up saying things like, "Wow, that's a bummer for that guy." And this is satisfying when you get a reaction.

It's also satisfying to show big things happening, and destruction does that really well.

So, I don't worry about it too much. I mean, if a kid is doing a diagram on how he's going to destroy someone in particular, or seems upset, that's different. But the blam-o slapstick stuff is okay. Shoot, that's the old Warner Bros. cartoons.

Watch This! Then say, "Ouch."

This is kind of painful to watch but it's spot-on. Take a look at the video.
Then, look at the facts page too. Read the whole thing, it's all really good.
And let me say, this is a good time to acknowledge - again - the efforts of great public school teachers to take what they've got to work with and make something of it - year after year.
Send this to everyone you know.
This is why I am teaching.
And as an independent teacher, I work in lots of different settings - and see the synapses fire off in all kinds of kids. Not just the stereotypical "artsy" ones, but all of them. Different ages, different abilities, different personalities.
The best education teaches kids how to learn. THAT is what you take with you.

A Good Book: Drawing on the Right Side of The Brain

This book has been around for a very long time. It's a great book for showing how drawing involves a simple set of skills and it lets you try and practice each one individually. You can get this at Amazon too, and it also has a workbook if you're into putting all your stuff in a fancy workbook. But paper works fine too.

Betty Edwards likes to take adult learners and teach them how to make "good" drawings, which can seem a little like a gimmick. But it's not - she's really interested in helping people reach new areas of their minds. I think that's the best thing about her book: it emphasizes the "right brain" state of drawing, where you stop being verbal and go into a mode of creating visually. I see this with students all the time, and I adapt my materials and activities to help it happen.

Again, if you're one of my students, I can loan this to you...

A Good Book: Understanding Comics

Scott McCloud has written a number of books on making comics, but his best one remains this one: "Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art." It's a really nice explanation of how a comic gets put together and why it works. You can get it on Amazon.

Or, if you're one of my students, I can loan you my copy - if you give it back...

Keith Haring Coloring Book

Here's something fun to do online. It's a coloring book based on the work of Keith Haring. One note - you do have to double-click to select/deselect things. But once you get the hang of it, it's big fun.

Keith Haring got famous doing graffiti in the subways of New York. May 4th of this year would have been his 50th birthday, had he not died at age 31 from AIDS. Here's a bio.

And, there's more! The Haring Kids site is good for the younger set, which is good, since some of his subject matter can be kind of adult in nature. But this site is cool. Enjoy!

Funky Diagram Part 3: How to Think On Your Feet

Alrighty then, we're on to Part 3 of the Diagram. As a refresher, it looks like this:




Part 3 is terribly, terribly important because it is all about experiments and surprises. These days it seems all we want is the RIGHT answer. We want to be RIGHT all the time. Kids in school are supposed to learn to do things right so they can pass tests. Problem is, often there is more than one way to be right, or the right answer doesn't become clear immediately.

I worry that this has become too all-or-nothing. Galileo didn't do everything perfectly the first time. A lot of Leonardo's inventions were kind of weird. The lightbulb, the computer, recorded sound - nothing came without lots of experiments. In fact, here's an article about the earliest known experiment in recording sound that just got discovered. It is really cool.

I've watched a lot of kids have a really love/hate relationship with the eraser end of their pencil. In fact, when the eraser gets involved, most of the time that kid is not too happy. In fact, I've worked with a class for an hour or more only to find that one or two kids still have blank sheets because they've drawn - and then erased - any number of drawings.

Here are a couple reasons why:
1. The eraser sometimes means failure. You didn't draw it right, so you have to erase. Only people who mess up HAVE to erase.
2. The eraser is being used to obliterate a "bad" drawing. You must wipe the whole thing off the paper so it never happened.

Thinking on your feet means being willing to experiment and to be surprised. An eraser can be used to make smudges, or to draw in reverse on a white board. They can also be stuffed into pencil sharpeners, but that's a different story.

So, I try to get kids to think before they erase. Can you set the drawing aside and come back to it? What's the real reason for erasing? At least by asking you can find out more about how you feel about what you're drawing -- good or bad.

Flickr is Your Friend!

Continuing on the idea of Discovering Answers, I know I just said that things with screens are passive. Which they are.

That said, the Internet is a wonderful source of inspiration. You can find out a lot about what kinds of art you really like, then you can take an artist and look him or her up on Wikipedia or Google and learn even more.

(Note to Parents: Some art sites have, er, "interesting" content on them. Depends on your own sensibilities. But I'd recommend keeping an eye on what kids are searching or what links they are following. Or, search with them. The searches I recommend below came up with content that looked okay.)

And, a wonderful place to see tons of inspiring stuff is Flickr. There is much more on Flickr than just photos. Many, many artists put their stuff on there. (I do, too!)

Try typing these things into the search box at the top of the home page (the one that says "Search Everyone's Photos"):

"drawing"

"oil painting"

"etch a sketch"

"sharpie"

"illustration"

I also recommend this group pool on Flickr - called Moleskinerie. Moleskines are little notebooks that many creative people carry around with them everywhere. There is a lot of really cool stuff drawn in these books. I have piles of these things. Mine are nowhere near as attractive as some of the things you will see here.

So much great stuff to look at!

On to Funky Diagram Part 2: How to Discover Answers

Okay, getting back to the diagram (if you need a refresher, I introduce it here.)

Part 1 was, How to Ask Good Questions.

Now, here's Part 2: How to Discover Answers.

I had a good chance to consider this on my recent trip to the coast, because we were totally throwing rocks and running around in sand and checking out stinky tide pools. We were ACTIVELY engaged in our surroundings.

Things with screens (TVs, DVDs, games, phones, etc.) are primarily PASSIVE. Look, I used to work in the game industry, so I've played lots and lots of video games. And video games, even with role-playing and all of it, are passive things. No matter what you do, you are reacting to the design of the game. You have to figure out how to get around, how to accomplish things, and all of that.

There is hope - Wii games, for example. And Second Life. But you're still... consuming what someone else has set up. Someone else imagined it first.

To really Discover Answers, you need to be in the driver's seat. You need all your different types of senses and brain cells. When you draw, it's you, and your pencil. When you look at something, you have to decide how you're going to look at it. Is it something you can pick up and move around? Do you need to move yourself around to get a better look? Or is it inside your head? Can you move it around in there to get a better look at it?

When you go to start drawing, you have to decide what materials you are going to use. Do you need mooshy pastels, or sharp crayons, or a big felt-tip pen? Or are you just using whatever is handy at the moment?

Discovering Answers means being willing to be surprised, and being ready to see a whole lot of different ideas. Often the best answers come from somewhere that is unexpected. After all, isn't that what research is all about? If you already knew everything, you would never have to look anything up.

These days it is really easy to mistake data for information. Data is stuff you can display on a screen or look up in a database. Data is what you get when you search on Google or Wikipedia. It can be really helpful, but it is only part of the story.

When you are going to draw something, what you need is information. You need to know all about something, like how it makes you feel or what it's like at different times of day. Drawing is expressing your feelings and your imagination. You can't get that off a screen, it has to come from your experience.

So, Discovering Answers means you have to be ready and willing to pay attention to your world and to experience it as the messy, surprising place that it is -- not something neatly designed for a screen.

Here's where i am & why i havent been able to post

Not much signal here!