Reflection #7

How can we inspire our students to think critically about the process of creating art? In his article “Rube Goldberg-Inspired Drawings of How Art is Made,” Thomas A. Oakley describes an assignment he presented to his students at the beginning of the school year. Oakley asked his students to create a drawing that illustrated the process of creating art. Some students struggled, and were not confident in completing the project. When our students struggle with their artwork, how can we help them complete the task without influencing the creative process? Oakley mentioned asking his students to illustrate how art is made as if they were explaining the process to a small child. This project invited his students to think critically about art, and also to reflect on their own learning styles and ways of thinking. Without much guidance, Oakley’s students were able to create original projects that reflected a deeper understanding about what art meant to each of the students. Oakley’s project sprang out of an inspiration provided by Rube Goldberg, who’s work is defined on his website as “a comically involved, complicated invention, laboriously contrived to perform a simple operation.” Many Goldberg’s comics show a complicated machine used to complete a simple task, such as an eight part orange juice making invention involving an “Albanian ook” and a “jumping jack band leader.” Goldberg’s drawings are meticulously thought through, creative, and comical. His website also features many opportunities for students to enter into artistic contests where they can express their own mechanical and artistic creativity.

I think the assignment used by Oakley proves students with a way to think more critically about the process of creating art, and encourages creativity. It also allowed Oakley, as a teacher, to see how his students learn best and how they create, so that he could incorporate that knowledge into his teaching of material throughout the year. If I were to draw a picture describing how I create art, it would start with several images that inspire me. For example, one thing I like to do is knit. I start with a general idea of something I want to make, a blanket, for example. Then I find yarn that I am drawn too. Usually I choose the yarn based on the thickness, softness, and the colors. Once I have a yarn to work with, I choose a pattern (or invent one). I begin working on the blanket, following a set pattern, and sometimes going back and fixing mistakes or changing the pattern until I find something that works for me functionally and that seems balances and aesthetically pleasing as well.