How do you find inspiration? How do you convey to your students the idea of finding new ways to stretch themselves?

Along with assessing art work or critically evaluating it students also need to figure out what inspires them. Many times when students are asked about imagery or symbolism they say they don't know why they chose the images or colors or technique they just did it. I always try to ask questions to get them to think about why they are doing the things they are, whether it’s taking a photo or capturing a particular landscape or responding to another person's work. We do not create work in a vacuum. What is it that inspires you? What type of images capture your attention or grab you? What do you have students do to think about their art and where their ideas come from?

We have a teacher, Jeane Elmer, in our district that taught a class about design thinking and challenged each of us to create an inspiration book or a look book. One idea she suggested was to spend 1- 2 minutes looking at a magazine and just pulling out pages that capture your attention. Not to over think it but just respond to what you see and pull those things that attract your attention. We then took those images and looking at them picking out what we liked and placed them in our journals or look books. The idea was to find new places for inspirations whether it was color or image or type face. She encouraged us to look at magazines or things aren't normally attracted to in order to gain new insights. She had us bring them to a session and share with each other. It was interesting to see other teachers’ books and how they used them in their work or with their classes. 

I used these ideas with my AP students to get them thinking more broadly before selecting their concentration. Many times students get stuck and do the same thing over and over. This process allowed me to push them in different directions. One day was looking at magazines, another was reviewing ART 21 videos, another was looking at artists’ websites or visiting a gallery or having an artist talk about their work and process. The main idea of the process is to get students looking around their environment for inspiration and figuring out where ideas can develop or finding new places of inspiration.

We have another teacher in our district, Sally Jones, that uses art journals with her students especially her AP students. She calls the journals "brain food" and tells students that thinking and planning and dreaming on paper are essential to the full development of ideas. Students need to exercise their brain to think, plan, execute and problem solve their ideas. The idea of the art journal was taken a step further when a teacher at the Baltimore NAEA conference suggested making them on topics and having all students contribute to them and then keeping a library of these idea journals in their classroom. Imagine having a student who says their stuck and referring them to a library of art journals to look at to inspire them.

What do you do when you are having a brain freeze or you feel no inspiration? Where do you go or what do you do to get ideas? How do you find inspiration? How do you convey to your students the idea of finding new ways to stretch themselves? Do you visit a gallery? Do you go for a walk? Do you take out the sketchbook and try some doodling? I think as educators we need to share with our students our own journey. our own path and what inspires us from type face to a floral arrangement to a beautiful sunset or fiery blaze. Be inspired by the process, it’s also about development as well as execution.

-Rosie Riordan