Understanding, guidance and opportunity.
Here we have three important words that make up the special
and fertile conditions that artistically talented children
require in which to thrive. With these three keys, they can
release their talent and reach their potential. They have
gifts to share with others.
Hashem gave artistic talent for a reason. 1) To give a vision
and inspiration to others. 2) To assist our power of
imagination for the sake of prayer, thinking or learning.
Highly developed visual perception and associated skills are
helpful in many areas of life. Children should have a means
to manifest this form of communication and conceptualization.
With understanding, guidance and opportunity, a talented
child can release a treaure house of visual goodness and
expression. Or, if not channeled, sometimes equal amounts of
energy are used for holding the talent in.
CLUES AND SIGNS OF TALENT
* The child shows movement/motion, giving life to non-real
things.
* Attention to details is strong.
* The child has creative imagination.
* The child has heightened visual observation, a clear sense
of esthetic structure and a relationship with the visual
world.
* The child identifies with touch, texture, movement of
lines, color, forms and objects. He is connected and can go
deeply into a limited area and gain great satisfaction from
this.
* He has a desire to know a material, subject or technique
well.
* He has a natural ability with a material and/or style.
START YOUNG
A gifted child may have a flood of visual symbols, colors and
images within. Help the child sort all these wonders in a
joyful, self confident atmosphere that validates the child.
Obviously, the best time for success is when the child is
young, before six or seven. Three and four years are not too
soon to begin. The time is ripe because they are building up
concepts and hand coordination. A mother and child hour is
ideal because the mother shares confidence building with the
little one. This prime time for hands on and motor skills
blends in perfectly with learning skills and education.
CREATIVE OPTIONS
Creative thinking skills and problem solving skills go well
with artistic work. To be a creative person is to see the
potential in all things and all situations. Because artistic
work is rearranging what resources (composition, colors,
materials, style, subject etc.) are available and where our
sensitivities take us, we learn that we have many options.
Options are part of a creative outlook.
With many options available, the key is to find the material,
style, technique that speaks best for the child. Just like
the musician who is at one with the guitar but not with the
violin, so, too, we have artists talented at portraits but
not at illustrations. Offer a variety of materials and goals,
leaving room for the child to pick his own course of
creativity and style.
Give choices for materials: colored pencils, oil pastels,
fine paint brushes and thick ones, watercolors and markers,
both fine and thick. Large and small paper, three-dimensional
constructions that can be painted and colored, scissors that
work well, earth clay, etc. Goals can include ability to draw
geometric forms and a complete child from the forms. Let him
stay on one goal or idea until it is concluded. Choose a
teacher that understands your child and what he likes.
UNDERSTANDING CLUES AND HURDLES
An informed parent can help the very talented child sort
him/herself out by understanding some of the clues and
hurdles that a gifted child has before him. For instance: A
creative and highly talented child may be confused and not
understand his different perception or realize the scope of
his potential. Or, if the talent is clear, s/he may feel
pressure from others to produce when he is not ready or is
not at ease.
The ease he felt when drawing as a small child is not the
same ease as knowing one's craft based on a lot of
repetitious work. Parents will need to exert an effort to
find the right pot of soil for their child. Yes, we need
encouragement, the right teacher and opportunities at home or
outside for talents to be used effectively.
A WORK IN PROGRESS
The gifted child can ride on a wave of enthusism, because the
process of discovery is stimulating. But, as the child gets
older, s/he may have to deal with situations that are tricky,
like being singled out from other children for praise, to
produce art work or live up to high standards. All this can
be great at times and at other times, difficult for the child
who is not prepared to present "work in progress," work that
is being developed within and has not reached a stage to
present to others. They know that they haven't reached their
full potential yet and are self critical or perfectionist,
because in their minds, they see the finished product but are
unable to execute it yet.
Remind the child of three things: 1) They are doing great for
their age. 2) Mistakes are important tools. 3) Everyone makes
mistakes.
Internally, his clock may be sending out messages with
concepts and levels of perception like time release capsules.
On the burners may be a few pots cooking at a slow
temperature until just right. But who knows when this will
be?
He is a creation in the works and so are his artistic
productions. Writer Sarah Shapiro said that, "We don't `put
down' a flower because it isn't growing fast enough."
Therefore, everything little or big the child does should be
received with honor and approval. A sensitive teacher will
appreciate this and yet at the same time, offer goals and new
information to advance the child in other directions.
A MIRROR TO THE SOUL
Some children have trickles of talent that are hard to
describe and may be helped by pinpointing the child's special
needs, if any, perhaps with a professional evaluation, which
will give a clearer opening for the talents and the joy of
the child.
A few gifted children may overdevelop rich inner
worlds to compensate for clear lack of other forms of
communication or lack of sensitivity from others.
The optimum is matching the inner and outer being. A child's
drawings and art work can reveal their personalities to a
certain extent. Art can be a psychological self revelation
for children with inner pain or lack of adequate self
expression. A drawing can be a mirror to the soul. Hopefully,
all our souls have enough shine to make the mirror
twinkle.
Some children may excel in one skill, such as copying like a
pro, but later will not be exceptional or interested or
considered talented. A child may push down his talents
because there are too many obstacles and no room for joy,
time or encouragement.
Some people had talents that were not considered the style of
the day or that did not fit into the teacher/personal taste.
The teacher was not sensitive to the child's gift of color or
vivid imagination and perhaps looked out only for realism. A
trained eye knows that there are many options and
configurations in talent.
The child may work best alone without distractions or self
consciousness. The need for privacy to create may be because
he doesn't draw to the same `tune' as others. He must listen
to his inner voice. Eventually, a merging and confidence in
his ability to separate his talents and style from
distraction can come about. A talented musician may do better
as a composer than as a musician in an orchestra.
A STORY
Once there was a small girl who loved to draw. The lines in
her drawings were a response to the dance in her heart. The
long hours in school, peer pressures and the standards of
perfect and neat pictures slowly eroded her style and
spontaneity and left her thinking that a little house sitting
on the bottom of a paper and unpositioned in the corner was a
requirement for a grade A drawing. Her dancing lines and
energetic color-defining form was invalid. The teacher did
not respond to her efforts.
On the floor near the classroom trash can was a classmate's
discarded drawing of a neat house and sun. The retrieved
drawing reached the kitchen table of the little girl's house.
Without saying who had done the drawing, she placed it before
her mother and waited for, "What a lovely drawing you have
here."
In place of the assumed response, her mother glanced an
average glance and remarked an average remark. "It's O.K.
Nothing special." The revelation made an imprint on the girl.
Neatness and the ability to copy had their merits in the
classroom but was not a sign of talented drawing. The
interchange gave the girl confidence and fortitude to go
forward and appreciate the joys of her creativity.
GOALS
Some children may satisfy their need for manually expressed
communication either in two-or-three dimensional craft or art
while they are young. As they grow and language becomes
firmly established in them, they will no longer rely on art
and craft. Other children will always have a calling to use
their hands and visual language. It relaxes them and
organizes their senses and inner world. Call it a talent, a
hobby or a therapy; they are mandated to use it in some
form.
Fortunately, there are many outlets for this river of talent.
Teaching is one of them. At all levels -- charts, decorations
and graphics are used. A daf kesher prepared by the
kindergarten teacher and brought home can be embellished with
a nice graphic frame. A nursery teacher is in a perfect
position to use her talents for others and enjoy the work in
the same process.
We also have a host of professions that rely on a `good eye'
such as party planners, decorators, designers, graphic
artists, illustrators and oil painting painters. But most
important is the skill to turn on the power of imagination.
The ability to visualize the words enhances our concentration
while we pray or learn Torah and gives these depth. Likewise,
the ability to visualize the results of our actions is
important. This, too, is bringing the inner world into action
with the outer world.
Helping the gifted child with artistic talent properly,
especially when a child is young, can have far-reaching
effects.
Our real goal is not to signal out an artistically talented
child but to bring out the best in the child. He can be a
magnet of inspiration and a creative force for himself and
others in all areas, not only art. As the young child grows
older, having tapped his creative sparks, he can go on in
life with an enthusiastic and creative attitude with life's
challenges.
PARENT-CHILD ACTIVITY TIME
A Drawing With Details
A talented child uses details.
1. Do a drawing of your street, your city or your beis
knesses. For the street or city, include houses,
yeshivos, hospital, old age home, chessed
institutions, schools, buildings, sidewalks, street and shop
signs, crosswalks, people, cars, bikes, strollers, shops,
birds and so forth. If you choose the beis knessess,
include everything that goes in it.
2. Do the drawing in simple lines.
3. Add as many objects as you can think of.
4. Add as many details to the objects as you can draw.
5. Add as much shading, shadows or cross-hatching lines as
you can.
Devora Piha is offering Mother and Child Art Chuggim
together for children 3- 4 years in Ramat Beit Shemesh.
Phone 02-992-0501. Ask about the list of other
classes.
