“I have found that my (art) work tells me what I’m interested in. It tells me what I’m doing in the territory I’ve landed in.”
–Carrie Mae Weems speaking at The Corcoran in conjunction with the 30 Americans exhibit, November 12, 2011.
These words really resonated with me. As I revisited my personal work in my grown up studio this weekend, I could see that my work informed me of my thinking during diverse periods in my life.
Artist as mark maker. As a mark maker in the specific moment they are creating. Artist as archiver. It is why artists are so dangerous to repressive regimes. Artists mark time in powerful symbolic ways, reacting, speaking expressing.
This idea makes me think of the listening I do every day.
Visual listening.
With 4, 5 and 6 year olds.
Are they not also marking time in the territory they are in right now?
The following is the path behind, through and around one of the current PreK projects. As long and wordy as this documentation is (and I apologize for this), there is so much more to consider. I hope you will join in “listening” to what is often invisible.
I am posting a sampling of the transcribed work. There was not one that was better than another. Each piece marks the territory where each individual child has landed, right now. It is deepened by the context of being in a small studio group, where ideas are experimented, disseminated, constructed, shared and exclaimed over.
I was thrilled with Gaia’s verbal description for getting bigger or getting fat as “make more big.” Gaia’s first languages are Spanish and Italian. Her taking a risk and telling me a story in English in which she came up with verbal strategies to be heard is quite remarkable!
Hearing Artist Carrie Mae Weems speak after I wrote this, I would like to add another question:
Why is this work/research so very important? At this moment? In this territory? Right now? With young children?
Thanks again for inviting us to peer through the windows you open in our child’s lives. Gaia talked to me yesterday about building a tall house but the story got mixed with you asking for help to carry the tree parts and how she helped with Matteo’s mother. I understood she had piled up wood chunks into a house. It’s so important for me to better understand what she does in order to be able to share this process with her. Thanks again.Warm regards,Clara
@Clara, she also helped me outside rolling the tree cookies into the Nature Play area. She was telling you it all! Wow.
Hi! I come in again to tell you how happy I am to see Gaia?s work… Besides the fact of her trying to express herself in English, I am very much aware of how much she understands she has to become “Very big” in order to tackle her new challenges and she does this without anxiety as she seems to enjoy the process.
I am very far away and yet I am not.Cordially, Cristina
Hi! I am an art teacher at a reggio-influenced child care center in St.Louis. I am really enjoying your blog, thanks so much for documenting your teaching this way.
I have a technical question for this project, are you using wood glue, or hot glue? Do you assist the students with gluing? I’d like to do a wood sculpture project but wondered about the technical aspects of holding pieces together while the glue dries.
@Dawn, I use weldbond glue, which is a non toxic thick glue. I pour it into containers and have these plastic paddles for the kids to apply the glue. I do not assist the kids in gluing, however there is a lot of practice and talk about balancing ( let them build for a while without glue first), weight, looking at edges (like the beer caps.) Hope that helps!
Marla – Thanks for sharing the stories and photos from the Art Studio! We look forward to reading them throughout the year. Molly
This is just wonderful to read. I was able to pick Augie’s drawing out of the cluster at the top! I love that Augie’s far-flung family members are able to see the magic of SWS. Thank you.
Marla,
The stories are simply astonising, so imaginative and individual and yet universal.
Thank you for sharing, Elisabeth.
Yes, this entry is long – but it is fabulous! The children’s stories are so wonderful. I think it is extraordinary how the sketches, sculptures, and stories work in concert with one another, creating one extraordinary “mark of time” for each child. I love that you had children draw “the part that was in their imagination” – what fabulous new details emerged. I particularly love your open-ended question regarding the work of young children, “Are they not also marking time in the territory they are in now?” All children need adults who hold this invaluable perspective – believing in and treasuring children’s work.