WHERE AND HOW ARTISTS GET IDEAS

From Patty Knott 

How do artist's get ideas? Indeed this is the course missing from art education.

Sometimes I think it is much more important to be a student of history than it is to be a master of
techniques.   I have always believed the technique is easy it's the IDEA that prevents the growth to
being and becoming artist.

Artists create a representation of the world they perceive and in a fashion  that gives a better
understanding than written or spoken language can do.  I have spent a lot of time this week on the
images coming from Iraq. Anyone could spend hours "reading" about these images but it is the image itself that is so powerful.

Artists ideas have always dealt with birth, love, death, beliefs, rituals, heredity and what it means to
be human. The themes don't change. What changes is the society, the technology, the issues, the
controversies. The artist observes and offers a less literal view.

If you teach historical artists, then I believe it imperative to present the whole history of the time in
which the artist was creating. The ideas followed the "time." It's only recently that the artist has the
luxury of personal obsessions and of course, the benefits of all the history that proceeds. I think we
are truly on the verge of a Renaissance-like era where science and art truly merge and inform each other. Are there secrets to ideas?   Gosh, everybody has ideas. The secret is to not inhibit the ideas -- the secret is to not stifle the ideas.

I have 2 ways for generating ideas. Sometimes I only present a theme and the solution can be any method. Sometimes I present a technique and the solution can have any idea. No matter if it's theme or method my procedure is:
Present the problem.
Class brainstorm the theme.
Is the theme relevant? How does the student react to the theme? (and if the theme generates no enthusiasm then chuck it and get a better theme)
Make word associations to the theme.
Research the theme.
Collect visuals related to the theme.
Make selections.
Allow each child's choice and teach technique from the choice.
Have frequent "peer" evaluations throughout the process --- kids listen to each other and often see
things the "artist" doesn't that may take an idea to another direction. Recognize that kids are
very used to "group" work.  Allow for group collaborations. (I try to "recreate" the historical
models all the "isms" in art history  since Impressionism. These artists communed and dialogued
--- I'm not sure that happens in the art world so much today. Certainly there are no "isms" and maybe why the art being produced is so illusive, obsessive, and offensive... at least my classroom can be an "ism")

Grow the ideas - let the technique follow. Teach-- the idea is paramount and teach the best way
to communicate the idea.

I'm just now doing an "in the style of" lesson. The lesson is about both idea and technique. I presented Jim Dine. My lesson is not about hearts or bathrobes, but why did Dine choose these objects and how did he treat them? I gave a web quest to search Dine and asked questions:
Why the common object? How is the object treated? 
What is the most important principle in the compositions?
List the materials and techniques.
How can you make a common object a metaphor/symbol for you?

I required the materials- Mylar, vellum, any drawing media (graphite, crayons, chalk, conte, ink)  and
limited use of color. I gave each a small piece of Mylar to experiment with and required a full size plan before they could get the final materials. They reveled in the materials and simple ideas  are
finding "life" in the materials. They are taking ideas to levels I didn't expect ... Each idea
is valid and there is little "Dine like" about most of them but an idea has grown.

We have to be careful about expectations---- I always try to leave my expected outcome open to the variety of solutions I intentionally expect, and then not expect what I intended. That may sound convoluted  but it's the only way I know to allow their ideas supercede my ideas.

Ideas come from what has always been ideas and ideas come from play and experimentation allowing the place to fail and still giving joy to the experimenting. I somehow feel that we will never make artists if we don't make play

Kids need help with ideas; they need to know how to collect and recognize why they make choices in their collections-- They need to know know what they collect is valid --- and we need to know how to turn those collections into ideas. When we force technique, they want to know how to use the technique for their thoughts and observations. They have lots to say. We have to help them say it.

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