Art Rituals

I propose we start every class every day with a warm up ritual. We do a few minutes of quiet concentrated blind contour drawing from observation of a real thing, person, setup, or scene. Secondly, I suggest we end every period, after cleaning up, with another ritual. We have a discussion centered on the meanings and implications of what we did today. Between the beginning and ending rituals, during the main part of the period, we teach our projects as we always do.

I remember music teachers who always had us doing vocal exercises to warm up the vocal cords and tune our ears at the beginning of every rehearsal session. The ritual centered us. Our attention was on singing. There was never a question, "Let's see, what are we doing today?" We didn't feel we were performing a concert, we felt we were practicing.

Can we ritualize the art experience? The art class needs a devotional time to cleanse souls and center consciousness. Life outside the class and inside the student is turbulent, disorientating, sometimes violent, often depressing, and always confusing. How can we better help today's youth, than to give them a ritual liturgy to focus on learning art? Repeat the practice every day.

Life is tense enough. Instead of striving for a unique surprise each day in art, I propose for each day to begin predictable, stable, fulfilling, skill building, brain building, and above all centering.

Teach them about the joy of practice. Practice makes anything easier. Practice builds self-esteem. Practice builds confidence.

Teach them about imaginary drawing in the air before drawing on paper. Teach them to point their nose to the subject and do a careful imaginary nose drawing⁶ in the air. Do the same with a finger or pencil in the air. Air practice is simply pointing to edge of the object and drawing slowly in the air. Draw invisibly on paper with only a finger before using a pencil. Looking carefully means following the contour slowly--about as fast as an ant could crawl along the edge. End Note⁶

Teach them to look carefully at the edge of the object being drawn while the pencil moves. Use a 4B or 6B soft pencil so it shows. No erasers. Just add another line. Never look at the paper while the pencil moves, but look at the paper any other time. Never draw for them on their paper. Maybe allow erasers after it is finished, but practice work with extra lines is fine.

Placing the pencil through a hole in the center of a 8 x 8 inch card hides the drawing and avoids sneaking a peek. Explain it to them by going to the object being drawn. Slowly move your finger along the edge of the object illustrating the deliberate careful way of drawing it. If you do this, there is no need to draw in front of the class or on their papers. Encourage air practice and invisible drawing on the paper with just a finger to build confidence.

Every day, have them work three to five minutes doing slow focused careful observation. Date the drawings. Place them in each student's special folder or use a sketchbook where this developmental record is kept. Every day it's the same. Nobody asks, "What are we doing today?" until this "devotional" is over.

From time to time, add new techniques to the liturgy. Try a new way to hold the pencil. Try charcoal. Try markers. Try crayons without paper on them. Try the other hand. Try it much bigger. Try it much smaller. Try white chalk on black paper. Try only negative shapes. Maybe every fifth day, explore a new way to do blind contour drawings. But always come back to basic pencil on paper. It's the skill and creativity, not exotic materials or cute looking tricks that really matter.

Why contour drawing? Why not draw the dream from last night, or two point perspective, or some other worthy learning task? While drawing from observation is not the only worthwhile learning task in art, it is very worthwhile for several reasons. Everybody wishes they could draw better. Drawing develops the right brain. Drawing builds self-confidence. Finally, drawing is one thing we do know how to teach. It gets us weaned from dependence on copying, which I still see in many of our schools. If first and second graders learn observation skills, they are less apt to have a crisis of confidence in the third grade when they begin to recognize the crudeness of their own work.

The key to all teaching is to make it easy enough when they are beginners and hard enough when they become more skilled. Always keep them challenged, but never frustrated. Hard/easy practice isn't only for athletes. Hard/easy practice also perfects art skills. The hard times challenge and the easy times reassure and perfect.

Observation drawing is hard work because it requires intense concentration.¹ For an early experience that is easy for anybody, bend a length of coat hanger wire into an abstract shape. Hang it in front of the room. Have them all do a blind contour drawing of the wire. Progress to stuffed animals, to plants, to people, to scenes. The best subjects are those they have never seen posed this way before so they don't rely on their learned way of drawing. If it is not new, make it harder by placing the objects upside down.

Once they understand the process of observation, they have learned how to learn how to draw. They'll never need a "how to draw" book or guide. Once you can draw from observation, you need no tricks, no guide books, no formulas for faces or body parts, and no more triangle cows or oval horses. No more stereotypes.

Because observation drawing is intense concentration and hard work, three minutes may be long enough at one sitting. Be careful about pushing them too long, but occasionally it would be good to see what they can do. As their skills develop, their attention span expands.

Repetition and routine are so important to good practice and mastery. Shinichi Suzuki, the Japanese violin teacher, talks of creative repetition. He says, "Mastery equals understanding -- plus 10,000 times!"² As a potter, I tell my students not to expect their fingers to have brains like mine until they have made 10,000 cylinders. I have virtuosity in my fingertips, not because of some great talent, but because of much hard/easy practice.

Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, a scientist at the National Institute of Health, studying the brain, found that we acquire new skills in surprising ways. Using five finger piano exercises, he found that the brain's motor maps of the hand more than tripled for those who did goal oriented practice on the piano. Those who spent the same time just hitting keys showed little or no brain effects. The most surprising effect came from a third group who simply practiced by imagination. "They . . . were only allowed to rehearse mentally -- not manually -- while looking at the key board. `After five days the brains of these people were identical to those who had manually practiced . . . The same cell networks involved in executing a task are also involved in imagining it.' "³

In more recent research by Daniel Glazer related to mirror neurons, reported by Peter Tyson, it is found that subjects who have achieved physical expertise experience real learning by observation alone. While the studies are not directly using drawing students, it follows that those with the ability to draw may find that careful observation while they imagine drawing (or air drawing) will enhance their learning and physical ability to draw.

Does this mean we can devise ways to teach drawing without actually drawing? Maybe. When we really look at something while imagining how to draw it, we are learning to draw. This may be a good way to help children prepare to draw. They can do this imaginary drawing at times it would be socially unacceptable to be drawing, as at a concert, or while listening to a boring lecture in another class. Because of their richly developed imaginations, creative people are seldom bored for long.

Having proposed a beginning ritual for the art period, allow me to propose an ending ritual as well. We clean up three to five minutes early. Use the remaining time to clarify and endorse today's work. This serves as a benediction time -- a closure time.

The teacher poses questions. "What did we learn today?" "What did we practice today?" "Why did we do what we did today?" "How will we be better people because of what we did today?" "What will we notice more after today's class?" "What did we learn to see today?" "What did we enjoy most today?" "What did we learn to help us on our next art project?" These are some general questions. Each day's work will also have specific topics for discussion such as, "What are the best colors to use when you want things to move forward (or backward)?" Good closure matters. Review time is often the most effective learning time.

Image flooding at the beginning of an assignment gets what looks like artwork from students, but there are some important educational reasons to wait until near the end of the art period before showing examples from art history.

Artwork from art history can make more sense when it relates to concepts students have thought about in order to do their own artwork.
Students are practicing the creation of their own ideas -- they are not learning to depend on examples.
As teachers, we become more articulate if we explain the assignment concepts rather than depending on examples.
We learn to plan lessons that include practice and preparation for the main lesson. This is more like most major artists work.

First, their own work provides a frame of reference⁴ for meaningful observations. By showing artwork at the end of the period, they will have a greater appreciation and interest in the work. Students will recognize ways in which the artist(s) had to deal with issues similar to issues students had to deal with in their own work that day. Naturally, the teacher shows a work or several examples that relate to things learned in the lesson that day. Use a few minutes at the end of the period to integrate Art History and contemporary art ideas, art criticism, and aesthetics into the lesson of the day. Avoid fragmented and irrelevant learning.

Second, by showing the work at the end of the session, we don't tempt or suggest copying the artist. Even when a teacher reminds them to use their own experiences and ideas, it is hard to get the example out of mind once they have seen it. There is always the unspoken endorsement of the example, despite what the teacher says, and no matter how large the variety of examples is. The easy way to do the assignment is to select a neat solution done by an artist. If we show an example, how can we expect students to do it the hard way and work from their own experiences? Showing work before the work is showing answers instead of articulating challenging problems.

Naturally, if we don't show examples before they work, we need to articulate our assignments better. Not only do we speak more clearly, we offer more preliminary learning experiences so there is less misunderstanding about the assignment's goals. Instead of simply demonstrating a new process, we give every student a chance to learn the process with hands-on step-by-step procedures. They'll get to plan ideas and play around before we expect them to create something called art. They'll learn to develop preliminary ideas before they start on the main project. It teaches students to work more like real artists.

Recently, while visiting with an art major at a nearby university, I asked her how she generally gets the ideas for her work. She replied, "I do research." I asked, "What kind of research?" "I look at artists' work until I find something that I like." I understand where she is coming from, but I am sad. She has learned well what most of us teach. Borrowing is easy. Original thinking based on our own experiences is really hard work.

As a teacher, when I don't show examples before the work I am forced to think about the assignment, understand it, know how it works, what I want learned, and so on. It challenges me to be a teacher, not merely a supply clerk. It may mean fewer finished products, but isn't it better to foster an honest understanding of art, learning how to think, and self worth? Fewer end products can mean more learning.

When students solve problems themselves, we find out how well we actually articulate the assignment. We also learn more about the diversity of our students. When students solve the problems, and ideas come from the students, we learn how unique our students are. This can be a bit disconcerting and can even look like regression if we are accustomed to seeing fairly skilled homogeneous mimicking of examples. In a product centered philosophy it seems stupid to reinvent the wheel. In a process centered curriculum where students learn how to think, the invention of a wheel would be a huge accomplishment.

For too long we have taught to do and not to see. We have taught to do and not to understand. We have taught to do, but not to own - merely borrow. We have taught to do, but not to feel. When we show examples first, we dishonor the artistic process. When we show examples first, we rob the student's ability to own the solution. When we show examples first, we imply unreal expectations on the end product. When we show examples first, we unknowingly corrupt the process of producing meaningful self-expression.

Let the end of each period be a benediction on today's learning. Let's endorse what we have learned by discussing it. Furthermore, at the end of the creative time we can show the work of real artists who have struggled with similar issues. What better way to close the session and help our students face the world?

CONCLUSION
Using rituals, we can structure a few minutes of predictable time at the beginning and end of every art period. We can address several significant shortcomings in art education. This proposal addresses the issue of artistic accountability, the problem of student attention span, the need to practice skills, the problem of self-confidence, the problem of copy work, the issue of creativity, the problem of knowing in art, the problem of art criticism, and the issue of teaching aesthetics. These are issues we cannot afford to ignore. We should habitually and ritually address these issues every day in every class. Otherwise, we cannot expect to gain the respect of our students, much less the communities we depend on for our support. This is a modest proposal. Please let me know what works for you.

¹Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Los Angeles: J. P. Tharcher, Inc. 1979.

²Sherer, Lon. Practicing: A Liturgy of Self-Learning. 1988. Pinch Penny Press, Goshen College, Goshen, IN. p. 17.

³Chase, Marilyn. "Inner Music, Imagination May Play Role in How the Brain Learns Muscle Control," The Wall Street Journal, October 13, 1993, pages 1 and A13

⁴Rueschhoff, Phil H. and Swartz, M. Evelyn. Teaching Art in the Elementary School. New York: Ronald Press, 1969. pages 45 - 46.

⁵Tyson, Peter. "Daniel Glaser's Latest Study With Ballet and Capoeira Dancers." NOVA Science Now - January, 2005
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01-resup.html back to text

⁶Nose drawing. The method of nose practice was submitted by Naida Leon, a Florida art teacher. She was told to use this method as therapy for a six-year-old child with an eye that drifts out. She and I both find that children enjoy this while learning to observe better.

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Originally published as ART RITUALS IN THE CLASSROOM written by MARVIN BARTEL, Ed.D., Professor of Art, Goshen College, copyright, © 1993, Photos - © 2001 This Update - © January, 2007 by Marvin Bartel

Art Rituals in the Classroom