Thinking Through Art

"The studio space is not an isolated place where artistic things happen. It is a laboratory for thinking. It is a place to see that thinking can be expressed through materials."

—From "Beautiful Stuff" by Cathy Weisman Topal & Lella Gandini (displayed in the art studio at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art)

It's fascinating to observe how the children approach visual art as a story. A drawing or painting is hardly ever a fixed thing or product to them but rather a map of ideas or continuously evolving narrative. Their art reveals the process of their thinking and we've noticed that when kids describe what they're creating in the art room, their language is verb-strong and often tells of many events or actions transpiring on the page rather than a single frozen image. Even if a child is painting something seemingly obvious like flowers, they don't just call it a picture of flowers but through their descriptions pull us into the scene in which those specific flowers are currently growing. 

Pencils, oil pastels, clay....the materials themselves offer ways for thoughts to arrange and rearrange themselves, find expression and be erased, and become something new again. As adults we often think of art as an isolated activity and also have the tendency to view making art in terms of the future finished piece. But being around the kids in the art room is a fabulous reminder that art is all about process and even when something is "finished" its story is still actively taking place. And most importantly, we're reminded that an art piece just started is not "unfinished" but a story unfolding in the present moment.

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