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Study of Youth-Created ArtHow children portray themselves in their artworkBy Emily Majeski

My youth art study is based on 20 works of art by children of different ages, different locations in the world, and from different times over the last few decades. The commonality is that all the images are portrayals of self, which may be manifested as self-portraits or more abstract visions of oneself in the world he or she lives in. Some of the children have represented themselves as

they see their place within their own families, within their peer groups, their communities, or they have portrayed the way they see their future selves.

The images I have chosen for this project come from several sources, ranging from the International Child Art Foundation, whose mission statement is “to employ the power of the arts to nurture creativity, grow healthy habits, and develop

empathy-building blocks for hearty and peaceful, creative communities that celebrate diversity and prosperity for all...”. Their vision vibes with my collection, because it proposes that creativity and imagination developed as a child will help make children more adept at working together with others and developing solutions to world problems when they become adults.

A collection of works by children across time zones and decades, interpreting their personal view of how they are and how they see the world they live in.

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Jana Chalaini, 11, Lebanon, paint on paper

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As art educators, there are tools we can use to start a meaningful dialogue with children about our their experiences as individuals and how they feel they fit into the world in a broader sense. Young children are just beginning to think outside of themselves and art-making activities can aid in expanding their perspectives. Consider Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence, "reason, intelligence,

logic, knowledge are not synomous. . .", intelligence includes area of include such areas as music, spacial relations, and interpersonal knowledge in addition to mathematical and linguistic ability. "In-depth explorations using a variety of cultural objects can help students understand themselves and the visual world around them." (Chung, 2003)

Additionally, I have included images sourced from the Illinois State University Milner Library International Collection of Child Art, Artsonia.com collections, Children’s Aids Arts Programme, Santam Child Art Exhibition Gallery of South Africa (in it’s 49th year of supporting child art in South Africa and Namibia), and an example of digital child art from Little Wonders Learning Center in Texas.

I chose this topic, because many cultural themes and social norms that exist seem to be reflected in children, particularly visible in their artwork, in an almost un-edited way. Children mirror what they see and what they perceive. Hamblen (1984) concurs with this observation, "Artistic perception is seen as a socially communicative act in which assumptions of creators and viewers of art are shared through commonalities of socialization and learned categories of artistic expectations." I think that a kind of transaction that happens when

viewer interacts with a work of art can be particularly powerful when that viewer engages with child art. I believe that development our our creativity can help us become a catalyst for change. When we see our world through a child’s eyes, we see what is good an pure, but we also see the fears and dangers of our world. "Predispositions for the aesthetic that are developed are based on socially relative

learned expectations. (Hamblen, 1984). I do not believe that we can demand that children explain or show in their drawings what is good or bad about the society we live in, but we can prompt them to show us their experiences, their hopes, their dreams for the future, as well as their fears. I think we often see these jive with the ones we all have on some level.

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"Artistic perception is seen as a socially communicative act in which assumptions of creators and viewers of art are shared through commonalities of socialization and learned categories of artistic expectations."(Hamblen, 1984)

Muthumudalige Emashi Nilupuli Perera, 11, Sri Lanka

Imar Mohhamed Hamer Saif, 8, United Arab Emirates

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I chose a selection of four works from my youth-created art collection to discuss. These particular works contain elements internal reflection as well as external dialogue about social and cultural issues that are important to them. For that reason, these seem the most fully developed and self-challenging examples.

To begin, we look at a 1969 painting by a 7-year-old female artist from Bogota, Colombia. Her work, “Momma Preparing for a Party” provides a view into the child’s home and life. We can ascertain that the child’s colorful images present a happy home and a positive relationship with a parent. Socially, it the viewer the idea that the home must be affluent enough to enjoy a party from time to time, but no so often that this isn’t a special affair. We get a glimpse of female roles in 1969 Colombian life based on this image as well.

The next image is by a 10-year-old American boy from 2004. This work of art is entitled, “Me in the New Millenium”. The boy drew himself crying, in the center of the page, appearing as though he were on a piece of a puzzle. The other pieces of the puzzle fit around him, enclosing him. Each puzzle section has a fearful image, such as sickness, war, citizens from different faiths fighting (represented with drawings of a Christian church, an Islamic mosque, and a Jewish Synagogue in the background) , in addition to a drawing of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. This tells us about the time and place the student is coming from and it reflects social fears of others in his culture and in other cultures, but it also shows his personal feelings. He is a boy, but he is not afraid to represent himself as vulnerable, not only to represent himself crying, but also by placing himself in the center of it all. The center could also be seen as a place of power in this drawing though, and I feel that it can represent his desire to help change the things he fears.

Next, there is a painting by 11-year old Sri Lankan artist Muthumudalige Emashi Nilupuli Perera. This painting shows a busy, mostly positive future representation of the world, portraying robots hanging out with kids, people on cell phones, others

flying rockets, and what appears to be animals in test tubes of some kind. In the center of it all, a young man with a computer. To me, it represents the importance the young man feels computers play in our lives in the future and where he sees himself fitting into that world, as the operator of the computer, showing others (possibly students of his in the future) all the potential held with the future of technology.

Last, I would like to highlight a multi-media work of art by 8-year old Melika Rabiei of Iran. This is a picture of Melika as she sees herself with her father, who is shown as kneeling down to her level. It is a bright sunny day with butterflies and flowers and they appear to be on a tiled patio. She is in a fancy skirt. This is a very positive view of life, representative of hope, joy, and good family life. It reminds us that no matter what view the rest of us have of a place in the world, such as Iran, which is usually shown on the news as a place full of strife, that people are living their lives in very much the same ways all over the globe. What makes life good, like friends, family, and nature, seem to be universal desirable themes in child art. Children have the capacity to solve problems and offer solutions through creativity. Children also have a tremendous amount of hope. Perhaps it is that hope that diminishes as they get older, not chidren’s creativity. Instead of thinking about how to bottle early creative inclinations, we should concentrate on keeping hope alive.

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Resources

Chung, S. K. (2003). The challenge of presenting cultural artifacts in a museum setting. Art Education, 56(1), 12-18.

Eisner, E. (1978). What do children learn when they paint? Art Education, 31(3), 6-10.

Flannery, K.A., and watson, M.W. (1995). Sex differences and gender-role differences in children’s drawings. Studies in Art education, 36(2), 114-122.

Gardner, H. (2004). What we do and don’t know about learning. Daedalus, 133(1), 5-12.

Hamblen, K.A. (1984). Artistic perception as a function of learned expectations. Art Education, 37(3), 20-25.

Donley, S.K. (1987). Perspectives: Drawing Development in Children. [visual graph of developmental stages created by Lowenfeld and Betty Edwards adapted from teacher inservice material]. Retrieved from: http://www.learningdesign.com/Portfolio/DrawDev/kiddrawing.html

Parsons, M. (1990). Aesthetic literacy: The psychological context. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 24(1), 135-146

Parsons, M. (2002). Aesthetic experience and the construction of meanings. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 36(2), 24-37.