“Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It’s crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it?”
-Frank Gehry
"Pieces of Imagination" 30" x 30" work on canvas
I recently read a piece called Kindergarten Cram by Peggy Orenstein in the NY Times magazine which spoke of the current state of play (or lack of it) in today’s Kindergarten classrooms. “Instead of digging in sandboxes, today’s kindergartners prepare for a life of multiple-choice boxes by plowing through standardized tests with cuddly names like Dibels (pronounced “dibbles”), a series of early-literacy measures administered to millions of kids; or toiling over reading curricula like Open Court — which features assessments every six weeks.” I can not help feeling sad reading this. Ms. Orenstein reminded me of dancing the hokey-pokey, Duck Duck Goose, and the wake up-fairy. Those were magical days with crayons, poster paints, imagined dragons & fairies, spaceships of cardboard, unicorns, wild horses, and dress-ups. After school, more play, more imagined flights to the moon staged in the dark of the downstairs bathroom (the only room in the house with no windows). We cooked on the Easy-Bake Oven, finger painted, spatter painted. Lightening Bug Glow Juice thrilled us with its magical powers. We took pretend vacations to anywhere staged in the family station wagon (while parked securly in the carport). We played. We played and played and played.
The article in the NY Times goes on to say: “According to “Crisis in the Kindergarten,” a report recently released by the Alliance for Childhood, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, all that testing is wasted: it neither predicts nor improves young children’s educational outcomes. More disturbing, along with other academic demands, like assigning homework to 5-year-olds, it is crowding out the one thing that truly is vital to their future success: play.”
THERE IS HOPE!! “the one thing that truly is vital to their future success: play” Yes, this line gives me hope!!
Creativity is about play - play the essence of creativity. Perhaps there really is hope that we as a society will learn to value imagination and give play the needed the time and space to grow. I believe if we give our children the tools of creativity they will learn to fly…we need to continue to give them wings for creativity to thrive.
Painting is available from artist.
“If you’ve ever watched a child with a cardboard carton and a box of crayons create a spaceship with cool control panels, or listened to their improvised rules, such as “Red cars can jump all others,” then you know that this impulse to make a toy do more is at the heart of innovative childhood play. It is also the essence of creativity.”
-Bill Gates
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
hi there
i love this painting very much! gorgeous!
“If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it?”
Oh how I struggle with this one! I am currently struggling with trying to be freer while I’m working, but it’s hard. I have an OCD mind I think…
Sometimes I think too many years of technical (and directed) work has hardened my creative arteries.
Love this painting of yours too! Thinking, hmm, what’s outside that door/window? How I wish I could see “outside” when I work!
Lunch is over. Going back in there (the studio) to see if I can view the work as more than a chore. I miss play-doh because you could make and remake it. There was no fixed point you had to stop at.
Good article!
Thanks Viv! You are very kind.
Diana - love the line “too many years of technical (and directed) work has hardened my creative arteries.” It is sooo hard to hold onto that play element isn’t it? I always try to remember that great quote by Picasso; “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”
Deb, I am so glad you told me about this post. It is so funny we wrote about similar things today. What you have said here is true. There isn’t much PLAY in school now. There is no time for it. However, this is why people like me need to be in the schools. My classes act as a break from the demands of being a kid these days. My students know when they walk through the art studio door, their only job is to have fun creating.
Like I said in my post, my teaching reflects my own childhood experiences. It is interesting you mentioned the cardboard spaceship and flights to the moon. Every classroom in my school has a “time out” room. It is all white with a bare floor. Well, I got rid of that! In our art room, we have a ROCKET ROOM. We painted the walls with the planets, sun, and stars. When you turn out the lights the stars and moon glow because we used glow in the dark paint. You should hear the ooohhhs and aaaahhhs when I turn out the lights!!! LOL We are now making a “Space Station” with boxes and beanbag chairs.
This is how childhood should be.
Sheree Rensel
http://www.shereerensel.blogspot.com/
@Deborah Yeah, I’m familiar with that quote. I wonder how Picasso would have been after working for the government for 18 years and enduring art by committee?
By the way, that’s such a great quote because my first supervisor in govt. came into my office one day while I was coloring planning maps with those awful, smelly Pantone markers, and he said, “I wish I could sit and color all day!” I was labeled as the one who got to play all day. Imagine that!
At birth we are endowed with eyes that see
fingers that reach
and an insatiable curiosity.
As children we ask ‘why’.
As adults we often forget to.
Here’s to the child within that is too engrossed to stop when the bell rings!!!
Pat