Reclaim Your Inner Artists- I AM a Mixed Media Artist
73After a lot of encouragement from friends and colleagues, I would definitely consider myself a mixed media collage artist. This was a hard phrase for me to accept as I am quite the perfectionist with myself. No, I've never been to art school. My parents considered that to be a complete waste of time and money. No one makes a living as an artist they said. While perhaps it was true that it was more difficult back when I was growing up to break into the art world, that just isn't true anymore. Sites like Etsy which focus solely on hand crafted items for sale are doing rather well despite the "recession" we are experiencing currently. Why is that, when more and more schools delete art and music from their curriculum in order to teach to some standardized test that doesn't value creative thinking?
Once upon a time, music and art were just as important in the learning process as math and reading are. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. Its interesting, though, if you give a child access to enough glue, glitter, scissors, old magazines, crayons, and other coloring media - you will find that we are all mixed media artists at heart! Engaging a child in artwork helps to develop their natural inquisitiveness and creativity. Something that standardized tests hate - its not really very measurable.
Do Our Schools Kill Our Creativity?
Consider the following example. A close friend of mine has a daughter in kindergarten who is very creative and inquisitive. She spends her weekends making sand collages out of items she and her mother collect on the beach. Recently she is studying basic math and learning how to count items out. She was given a worksheet that contained lines of ten pictures each (ie 10 apples, 10 frogs, etc). For each line the kids were to color a certain number of objects to demonstrate that they understood "how many." Hers came out very colorful, unique, and correctly counted. However the teacher gave her a zero - FAIL. Huh? She colored 3 apples on the apple line with the number 3? Apparently because she colored a RANDOM 3 apples, rather than only the first 3 apples on the line, she failed.
We are seriously missing something here. The message this teacher delivered was that your creativity is WRONG. Kill it and step in line or you will fail, even if technically your answers were correct.
Take a look at this video (its 20 minutes long but WELL worth the watch) - Schools really DO kill our creativity
So I am back to the statement - I am a mixed media artist. I am very proud of that fact. Although in all likelihood, none of my artwork will ever hang on the inside of any museum. It doesn't need to. It serves a different purpose. Sitting down to work on a collage or play around with some new paints I just got as a gift stimulates my creativity. Art allows me to see new and different solutions to a problem other than just coloring the first three apples on a line. And mixed media collage helps me quash the inner critic who always says "you can't draw a straight line let alone an actual image."
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5 Ideas to Revive Your Inner Artist
- Grab some glue, acrylic medium, modge podge, whatever; some old playing cards or 3" x 5" cards; old magazines; colored pencils, rubber stamps, crayons, whatever; and a nice table space. Glue and color to your heart's content. Starting small helps turn off that critical voice in your head.
- Modge Podge some old crayon labels or some other funky/fun colored items onto a simple clay flower pot. (You can use other types of glue, but modge podge works for many things and above all is cheap!)
- Take a scrapbooking class or seminar - many scrapbooking stores offer these for free for beginners.
- If you are really serious about reviving your inner artist, work through The Artist's Way. This program is exceptional for stimulating your creative juices. In larger cities you can even find groups that are working through the book together, although if your artist has been silent for a while, she may be quite shy about sharing.
- Create your own greeting cards for this coming holiday season. Again, many slocal stamping stores offer classes for free or for a very low entrance fee to get you in the store. If you really don't like working with paper and glue - create them yourself using software programs and print your cards out on card stock!
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ah yes, for the pixil painters http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/ is awesome =)
Thanks for the great ideas! :D
I was appalled to read about the little girl failing because she did not color the first three. Three is three, whether they are the first ones or not!
@ K@ri - obviously I agree! Thankfully mom has found a private school with the help of some state grants where they actually value creativity.
The *not so funny* argument back and forth with the teacher after the incident lasted for several weeks with the teacher absolutely refusing to change the grade. Can you believe it? And with all the school funding problems these past few years we'll be lucky if they continue teaching any kind of music and art in schools =(
Hi Temperance M. It's lovely to meet an artist at heart. :D As part of the preschool industry, I often remind the teachers to do that. One time, I remember one teacher sharing that in one activity, the children were asked to draw daddy. One child drew an elephant. Later, she found out that it was "daddy elephant." And yes, the answer could still be correct right? We do need to be careful about what we are teaching to the kids. I for one will advocate for creativity too!
Congratulations for being a Hubnugget Wannabe! This is a great way to have your hub promoted. So check this out: http://hubpages.com/_143/hub/Vacation-Nuggets-for- Have fun!
what an awesome compliment! Thank you so much =)
Temperance - Loved your hub. I am so angry about the school budget cuts in my area cutting art and music and increasing sports! Priorities are all wrong!! I am a mixed media artist, as well. My favorites are rubber stamping, scrapbooking, painting, collage, doodling....etc., etc. Congratulations on your nomination to Hubnuggets! You got my vote.
Fantastic hub! :) I agree that schools are killing our creativity and that of our children. I am interested in getting involved in education, and this is one of my main concerns. I would like to help kids in need and become part of the solution. Thank you for pointing me toward Sir Ken Robinson and the TED organization. I am definitely going to be researching him and the organization that held the conference where he spoke!
Good luck with your future goals! Your bio is awesome and you seem like an incredible person.
You made it to top 5, awesome! Congratulations!!! Keep hubbing! :D
Great article! This is wonderful. Incidentally, if you want to create digital art, there's a free program you can download that does everything Photoshop does. You can do much more than just collage bits of photos together, you can actually select brushes, airbrush effects, choose colors, draw, paint, color, do anything with it and it costs nothing. Many sites online have coloring pages you can download free if you'd rather start with a sketch than do photo manipulation or draw freehand.
The program is Gimp and it's a free download. It costs nothing, all you need is some card stock to put in your printer.
I also read an article that the new iPhone has an art program built into it that with the touch screen, you can use that fancy phone as a tiny tablet PC for doing digital art. That was awesome to me, it's like having a digital sketchbook that wouldn't need carrying at all. It looked easy to use and one guy painted a magazine cover in it without taking a photo.
So it's possible for anyone to do spontaneous art, return to its soul-refreshing joy and learn to become a great artist whether ever going for the fine art market or not. Or make a good living without necessarily ever using galleries. The market for this sort of art is stable.
You're absolutely right about schools discouraging creativity. They do for the most part in everything but formal art classes. Never mind that creativity helps in every endeavor, you nailed the reason. It can't be measured on standardized tests.
Love this hub - as a fellow "self proclaimed" mixed media artist who has just outed myself, I relate to what you are saying - love your collage! The schools definitely stifle creativity! Kartika
Just found this hub, and really like it! I am more of a "mixed UP" artist!! I do everything from oil paintings the traditional way to mixed media, collage, tole, decorative, etc. I always have 3-4 projects going at one time because one just isn't enough. Great hub and I am now your newest fan!
p.s.-the school and the teacher are being ridiculous..."creativity opens the windows of the soul so the spirit can fly free!!)-Laura Thykeson
Laura T.
Excellent hub, excellent bit of art, World Leader, and an excellent vid of Sir Ken.
Well worth the visit.
Best
Mick
Really liked your hub. I also am an artist, or so my friends call me. I dabble in a little of everything, acrylic and watercolor painting, mixed media, drawing (portraits)and now I am trying something new, spray painting.
I have had a front row seat with what the school systems have done to art, music and other elective courses. Before I retired I taught home economics (36 years) and there are very few classes offered anymore, even though students need more than math and science to meet the challenges of life. I get really annoyed when I see them pushing athletics and do nothing to help those that are blessed with creative abilities, as well as classes that help them, for instance to balance a budget or help prepare them for becoming a parent.
The little girl that you told about, reminded me when I worked with younger children in our school Day Care Program and the students would try to make the kids "stay within the lines", well you know I was right behind them praising them for what they had accomplished.
Nothing wronG with being a mixed media artist. There are many successful artist that can not draw worth a darn. I did go to art school as an adult. I did not go after high school for the same reasons you did not go. My dad finally understood mu art drive when he stood in a gallery with me and overhead a professor talking about my work. It took 42 years for him to understand me. http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-find-The-Ultimate-J
Loved your article. I do all kinds of mixed media art; my favorites involve repurposing or recycling in some way. The Artist's Way is a great recommendation. Thanks!
Great article! It's a discussion we need to have.
I can relate, having spent a lot of my time as a WC purist I am now happily ensconced in mixed media work. The sad sad thing about schools killing creativity is that sometimes, for some kids that is all they have to make them feel good about themselves. Art saves.
I love your list of 5 ideas to revive your inner artist! I am big into mixed media and altered books. I recently started a blog, www.lookbetweenthelines.com, about it. It's great to see what other people are creating, it's the best way to get inspired!
Graphic Design
Alex ONeill 2 years ago
Honestly I think since it is mixed media artistry, maybe people who like the Internet can do some collages here. There are quite a few artistic sites around.