Art, Creativity and Optimism

A few weeks ago, my family and I watched the Michael J. Fox t.v. special (based on his latest book), "Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist." In this special, Fox searches for optimistic people in order to pinpoint how they do it. He also searches for the effects that optimism has on their lives. It was a really interesting special. One of the people/groups of people Fox identifies as optimistic are artists. Fox believes that Artists by nature, are optimists. He notes that creativity and determination to do what you feel and love equates to optimism. They have to be optimistic since 90% are unable to sell their work leaving them unemployed artists.

Do we teach optimism in our art courses? What a fantastic character trait for art educators to teach! I can imagine our students hearing the stories of starving artists like Van Gogh, helping to connect art to their own life's challenges. What other character traits does art teach our students and how do you teach them?

Look what I stumbled upon...

A very near and dear friend visited over the weekend. I love it when she visits because she always has something new and interesting to share. She is a graphic design student who works as a photographer's assistant. Her role is to complete the initial editing in photoshop.

Anyway, she turned me onto the stumbleupon.com website. This tool is pretty amazing! The idea is that once you select 'interest' categories. Then, you simply click the added button on your internet browser's toolbar called, "Stumble!" and within a second you are taken to a website related to your interests. From there, you can rate them, suggest them to friends, and 'house' them as your favorites within your account. It is really a lot of fun.
Here are some pretty unique car art ideas:

Invisible Car

Dirty Car

Have fun stumbling!

Do your art students have their own 'style' of art?

My daughter, Zoe, is taking an online middle school art course. She loves it! She's learning about the elements and principals of design by looking at the work and style of various artists. Her latest assignment was to write about her art. She was asked, "Where do you get your ideas for your art work?" Then she asked me, "Mom, do they mean the assigned art or what I do on my own?"

This got me wondering, "Why doesn't the assigned art match what the students do on their own?"

Obviously, we want them to grow and stretch in their ideas, but are the assignments really meaningful if the students don't see it as something they do outside of class? Do you have assignments that really tap in to what the students are doing (art-wise) outside of class?