Washington Elementary School has been working with the Fine Arts Association for a few weeks, and created art to hang up. The art was delivered to Fine Arts today by my sponsor, Jeannie Fleming-Gifford. The students had done a project where they splattered ink on a piece of paper, blew on it to spread it out, then created a picture out of the ink splatter using a sharpie. I figured it would be another tedious task that my sponsor would be glad to not have to do herself, but I ended up having a blast.
I never really realized how creative and entertaining elemetary school aged kids are. Each picture had a caption about what the picture was of, ranging from "The Dead Island" to "One-legged, Plasma-blasting, One-winged, Giant-tailed Dragon." I was probably having too much fun laughing and taking pictures of fifth grade art by myself, but it made me kind of sad that I constantly thought to myself, "I wish I was still this creative..."
The great thing about Fine Arts and bringing kids up with a connection to the arts is that kids like the students at Washington Elementary School are taught to really be able to express themselves and not feel embarrassed or stupid while doing so. Their art was fun, creative, entertaining, and interesting, which is everything that "real art" (the kind they will do as adults) should be.
You are right. Kids are so creative, and many people lose this creativity. I’m not sure whether it is from more education, embarrassment, or fatigue, but this originality is definitely necessary. I feel like anyone who isn’t a child anymore needs to connect with that ingenious side of themselves more often. I mean, if you lose your creativity, you partly lose yourself. That is why I hope to continue art in the future (even if it is not related to my major at all), and people who pursue careers that enable them to use that artistic side of themselves somewhat inspire me. I am happy that you got to see and enjoy the children’s art. I like the horse with the bad hair day.
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