February 11, 2013 – Wendell brief bio of her school: 8 teachers, make stuff, shows, ad noc and planned, example poster, geckos, large drawings, inner city start, now in suburbs, gallery connections, libraries and nature centers, high school, 1,900 kids Judy: the importance of making art visible in the community. Continuation with childhood development: What do adolescents bring forward from childhood. Parents—school—self-representation >> What do they bring to self re-presentation? Skills of hearts and minds. Use of materials. RECAP > Experiential. Early decision re: images. Start of artistry. Early predictable imagery > houses, creatures, vehicles, “in enormous abundance” My mommy, my cat, etc. Moves into functional – policeman . . . Showing layering of experience. Layering process > more and more visual information. Beginning of interactive events, repertoire building and narrative beginning. Baseline, horizon line, skyline. Paper is not depth. No spatial depth. Childhood logic: things find a place ~~ their “own” place. e.g.: mommy and me crossing the street. Calling on media imagery very early. Intertwined with fantasy, story, experiences. Kids make “much of” anything that happens. Fire drawing: 747 landing. River. Buildings. Perspective switch. LOOKING AND OBSERVING “Apple with a bite taken out of it.” Ask kids to engage with objects more than “observations” – bring the physical relationship to drawing. [among and between things] interactive events > friends and family and neighborhood and fantasy and imagination RE-PRESENTATION > to present again. Emphasize “again” Material plays a role in how you experience something, as you remember experience. Fantasy: piano at Carnegie Hall turned “flat up” to show it’s a grand piano. Learn to do things – Erikson – industrious, gradually inducted into rules of culture. Subject matter from kids > baseball diamond. 9 – 10 – 11 changes > content = game. Space = overlay, objects on other objects. Flatness is tipping backwards. Space awareness is awakening. Elkin – cognitive conceit > kids are growing into expertise. They say, “you don’t know that?” – derisory. [Clay doctor implements.] 5th grade: loving and affectionate, opportunities to express affection. Baseball picture > multiple points of view. Beginning of perspective. Bird’s eye view. We make this a difficult spatial time because we ask them to make it right. Diagnose from our assumptions, not from their experience. Drawing “train tracks” perspective but wanted green. Social events [up to the sixth grade]: expertise, commentary, far away places, media influences, learning concepts of space and bringing them together. Composing pictures for meaning. Making aesthetic choices. Kids work across an array of materials. Different kinds of matierals. Distinctive voice of materials. Theme determines material. [arrive at adolescence] with broad experience of materials. But not all do. Variable. Good art teachers take a multi-pronged approach. Learning and borrowing from each other. ADO Change: on their own outside school. We have a lot to learn about what happens outside school when kids are on their own. Hidden notes in notebooks begin to tell us they’re looking at the world more critically. The critical eye applied to the grownup world. Why is it happening? Shift – radical – whole new voice. LOOK for your own ado sketch books. Remnants of your own ado artwork. Signpost > beginnings of adolescences. Puberty. Growth spurt. Early and late developers. Physical and cognitive contradictions. Judy’s book pix – 1970s – disparity. JM Tanner – Daedalus. Boys vs. girls growth spurt – differences. Contingent changes vary. Weight – sexual feelings >>> surprise! >>> upset. New experiences and they are unprepared. [12 to 13 yrs] (sexual innuendo in everything) Self-confidence: boys early more; girls early less. Not categorical but common. Disparity of growth > the parts are growing at different rates [asynchronous] > clumsiness, hormones, weight. > uncoordinated. A new relationship to space. Judy e.g., broken finger. Space is different. New consciousness of body. Reaction against it. To stop or control it. – anorexia, physical exertion, pain. Vulnerability of early adolescent. Difference as threatening. Mass. law to separate people who were different :: uncomfortable mirror of self. Problem in middle schools. Boys vs. girls – discomfort because of developmental differences > young girls with older boys (conflicts). Disruptions of peer groups because of growth spurts. Friendships stressed. Boys & sports ~ status. Changes happen ~ how kids react is what matters. Adolescence as self-terminating disease vs. society intervenes to help kids with the changes. Sense of self: autonomous vs. a product of perceptions and senses that others give us. I am I | You are You > we can be ourselves together. How to help kids to acquire new repertoire to use to express and integrate this new sense of self. Intervene with the arts but not directly. There are extremes but mostly “just” a bumpy ride. Ado walking into the room ~ touch everything. High physical energy. Then lower energy – they go to sleep right away. How does society deal with it? >> reality shows & magazines > body image [fear][competition][stress to be prepared][proscriptions – what they’re told not to do] Also, confusion from society. Billboards: what are we telling youth about what is appropriate and how to look? What does the environment tell them? What is acceptable as a self? A body? As behavior? Characteristics of experience. Who tells me I’m ok? Teachers are part of that intervention, so that kids move through this period with sense of self intact. Sketchbooks Environment as mirror of self.