what is your favorite piece of art was
it made by a child I have a favorite
piece of art made by a child it gives me
joy I keep it near and dear and close to
my heart literally I’m wearing it my son
made this for me when he was two and it
makes me feel like a superhero so that’s
getting to be some time ago and so you
understand this is a very special
occasion and I only save it for the most
special occasions art and young children
to me to me a match made in heaven I
know I know the adult community the
artistic community we can easily dismiss
this art saying they don’t know anything
they don’t know what they’re doing it
doesn’t matter well I beg to differ
it does matter and they do know
something and they can teach us
something look at this artwork it’s
breathtaking please raise your hand if
you would consider buying something like
this actually that’s a lot of hands me
too but I’m getting ahead of myself a
bit so we’ll come back to this artist in
a bit
this young children’s artwork can
actually help adults in surprising ways
it can help us reconnect to parts of our
creative selves that we’ve let slip
because we don’t operate in that mindset
anymore at least not on a daily basis we
operate in this complicated adult
mindset it can help us connect to our
jobs in very exciting ways by reminding
us that we can see things from a new
perspective always we know a lot about
art work and the impact it has and the
numbers add up quickly the United
Nations currently globally reports that
there are 400 million
children between the ages of 3 and 5
half of which are enrolled in some kind
of preschool program that means there
are almost 200 million children making
art on a regular basis in that age group
alone think of that enormous resource of
art we know it can help with their
neurological development including help
building skills such as visual acuity
and eye hand coordination we know that
it can also help facilitate the
acquisition of higher mental functions
for example when life hits a bicycle
rack and creates all those shadows and
the children are asked to draw that can
you imagine those analytical
observations going on this is research
with six year olds we also know that
when collaborating and communicating
about art it becomes a powerful platform
for social interaction metacognition and
meaning making and then we know that the
joy and the process of creating this art
has implications deep implications for
children not only in their learning
environment in school but in life in
general I’m a designer artist and
researcher not necessarily in that order
but I’m interested in the combination
the connections between children
emotions and the art they make and
ultimately what this can do for adults
you know I’ve spent a lot of time in
school a lot since I can remember and
studying art the whole way and yet I
find these small people are some of the
most important teachers I’ve ever had
I’ve learned four lessons from them
through their art the first being
validity this artwork is valid and
legitimate and I want to see it
recognized by the artistic community and
the community at large for being the
contribution that it is let me show you
what I mean it also stands up to design
robust design critique which is not an
easy thing to stand up to here’s the
first example
a three-year-old doing this and what
intrigues me most about this children’s
artwork is they don’t have the formal
training they don’t have the long
extended experience that I have and yet
there’s somehow mark making these
remarkable pieces for example this one
here without any training this child
understands some pretty complicated
visual principles including visual
weight contrast asymmetry tonality etc
the list goes on plus again with no one
telling the artist he understood two
kind of secret little parts of the
design and art world namely everyone
loves the color blue right especially
when it approximates the color of the
sky on a cloudless sunny day and also
never go wrong with a touch of red
here’s the next one look at the motion
and dynamism created here nobody’s
telling this child to do this they just
do it this one’s quite exciting because
it’s quite sculptural some of the paint
raises almost a centimeter off of the
canvas how about this one
yeah it gets three-dimensional at that
point how about this one notice the bold
minimalism here in my experience
teaching graduate students I was
astonished to find the challenge people
had in moving from a tiny little corner
to actually filling the page and
children do it with abandon you know
have more space the better and knowing
when to stop that’s the trick how about
this one some people might call it a
mess
to me it brings the clip begs the
questions what is this magic how are
they doing this you know what this would
look like if we tried it how about this
one otherwise known as a scribble and
some people say it looks like a cat and
now you’ll never unsee that you know it
by now and probably you probably know by
now I’m not going to say it’s a scribble
because in fact it’s not it’s an
exploration it’s a it’s research it’s an
experiment that’s what these children
are doing and yet in design school we
call the exact same thing studies here’s
some more examples internationally this
is representation from Japan Turkey
Norway United States Denmark in other
words this is not a local phenomenon
this is global how about this one the
storytelling don’t you want to just dive
in and hear what this is about and
what’s going on here
charming and here’s another from the
same artist these are all
three-year-olds by the way this is
another one of his of his art this is
called the heart guy by age three
actually children have developed a
signature style which is quite
astonishing because parents can actually
go into a gym full of artwork and
recognize their own child’s this is by
age three how is this how old was this
artist when he made this this is by paul
rand who you might not know his name but
you probably know his artwork and his
ingenious icon design he’s the
mastermind behind IBM Westinghouse ABC
ups he drew this in my sketchbook one
day during class when I was his student
and he was 80 years old he was eight
decades you were years old he was an old
man so what does this artwork what does
Paul rands work have to do
you have in common with children’s in
fact this is the topic of my PhD
research visual simplicity may look
simple to do but I guarantee you it is
not what he’s done is he’s taken the
essence of the message and cooked it
down to its very core and then he begins
to play and isn’t that ultimately what
children are doing lesson number two is
presence in my experience in the group
work that I do the children are so
completely present in their work and
absorbed and their verbal comments very
often reflect this and sometimes to a
surprising extent for example they can
say the children between the ages of 6
of 3 and 5 can say things such as I’m
happy because I’m making something or
this is the color of blood from my
nosebleed yesterday or angry when he
starts and then he draws a superhero
did somebody call and then he feels
better afterwards or my mom made
pancakes for breakfast this morning and
that’s my favorite food and there were
no pancakes in the work I asked or as
one five-year-old told me and I will
never forget this painting lets me go
quiet inside lesson number three is self
judgment and self awareness in my
experience children do not engage in
comparison or self judgment of their
work much less anyone else’s until about
the age of seven when they’ve started
school and this lines up with other
pillar research in psychological
development what they do do is they
become very sensitive to adults
reactions around them and we need to be
mindful of this for obvious reasons I
can share an example of what not to do I
attended a weekend workshop of course
headed to the children’s tent there was
a giant table people all around children
making work it was a joy to behold the
teacher floated
around and basically did a desktop
critique on each child’s work responding
positively and smiling until she came to
this one whereupon and I am not
exaggerating she pulled into herself
body language froze up she leaned over
and barked at the child what have you
meanwhile the child slid under the table
of course and his mother came to the
rescue this is what not to do I need
less to say I had a chat with the
teacher afterwards and I did not
understand her explanation for why she
did that and I can happily report that
the child recovered continues to make
art and in fact doesn’t remember this
however I do and it changed my point of
departure from all of this what if she
had said to the child empowering the
artist tell me what’s going on tell me
what your emotions are all about let’s
talk about this and share it and ever
since then I’ve wondered oh she’s so
afraid of by this composition I’ll never
know look I get it sometimes it can be
hard to comment positively and
understand what to say when we are
presented with scribble oh studies
sometimes it can be challenging I
understand that what my point is is
maybe we don’t have to say anything
maybe we can actually just listen and
ask the child some open-ended questions
such as how does it make you feel before
when you were making it and now when
you’re presenting it you might just get
a rather profound answer the fourth
lesson I learned is focus with focus
comes time in every single session I’ve
observed it starts very quickly after
the creativity starts that the room goes
quiet in in artistic terms it’s called
the zone when when the artist enters the
zone and I don’t think we have a term
for when it happens to a group so I’m
gonna make one up
what happens with two and a half year
olds as they can actually go silent for
almost five minutes and you know that’s
an eternity to a two-year-old when the
teachers realizes that something’s
happening she can actually jump in it
makes her so uncomfortable that she
might actually be the one or he might be
the one to break the silence in fact
this just happened recently with with a
group not long ago that the teacher came
up after me and afterwards and said to
me I broke the silence didn’t I hmm when
it happens with third graders they can
go silent for almost twenty-five minutes
the teacher goes into her zone the whole
group is silent they’re working and it’s
a it’s wonderful to behold and then 20
minutes later she comes out of her zone
and says that’s never happened before
and she’s used to seeing everything do
you remember the piece of art I showed
you at the beginning this one I told you
he was young here’s the artist he’s a
baby he’s five months old and look at
his focus look at what this child is
creating you know this is food based
paint so why not just go ahead and lay
right down in it and you gotta have
respect for somebody who does a belly
flop in their work and here’s his new
work oh by the way that previous picture
that was when a long time ago that’s
when he was four months old he’s now
five months look at what this child is
creating look at the the joy and the the
amazingness of it all and here’s his
gallery piece if there were a gallery to
hang it in what if we had galleries what
if we actually had dedicated spaces for
children to hang their work and enjoy
and be a part of the artistic community
what if we embraced them as a valid part
of our artistic world what if
we actually provided rooms for them in
real places not just traveling exhibits
through museums or maybe school gems but
real places what if we actually had that
I’d like to see that you know humans
have been making art for well
seventy-three thousand years did you see
this new article in the journal Nature
by the way this brand new find it’s it’s
incredible it it pre it it puts to shame
the most recent discoveries of 40,000
years humans have been doing this for a
really long time and in the Younger
caves we know that children were present
because their work is in screw is
translated on the walls in the form of
these iron oxide stencils they were
present they were there we know this
from the iron oxide is the red color and
the black is the manganese and we don’t
know what their contribution was to
those to those artworks in the caves but
they were there they were a part of it
and they were embraced by the larger
community of art and so I wonder isn’t it about time we do the same
it made by a child I have a favorite
piece of art made by a child it gives me
joy I keep it near and dear and close to
my heart literally I’m wearing it my son
made this for me when he was two and it
makes me feel like a superhero so that’s
getting to be some time ago and so you
understand this is a very special
occasion and I only save it for the most
special occasions art and young children
to me to me a match made in heaven I
know I know the adult community the
artistic community we can easily dismiss
this art saying they don’t know anything
they don’t know what they’re doing it
doesn’t matter well I beg to differ
it does matter and they do know
something and they can teach us
something look at this artwork it’s
breathtaking please raise your hand if
you would consider buying something like
this actually that’s a lot of hands me
too but I’m getting ahead of myself a
bit so we’ll come back to this artist in
a bit
this young children’s artwork can
actually help adults in surprising ways
it can help us reconnect to parts of our
creative selves that we’ve let slip
because we don’t operate in that mindset
anymore at least not on a daily basis we
operate in this complicated adult
mindset it can help us connect to our
jobs in very exciting ways by reminding
us that we can see things from a new
perspective always we know a lot about
art work and the impact it has and the
numbers add up quickly the United
Nations currently globally reports that
there are 400 million
children between the ages of 3 and 5
half of which are enrolled in some kind
of preschool program that means there
are almost 200 million children making
art on a regular basis in that age group
alone think of that enormous resource of
art we know it can help with their
neurological development including help
building skills such as visual acuity
and eye hand coordination we know that
it can also help facilitate the
acquisition of higher mental functions
for example when life hits a bicycle
rack and creates all those shadows and
the children are asked to draw that can
you imagine those analytical
observations going on this is research
with six year olds we also know that
when collaborating and communicating
about art it becomes a powerful platform
for social interaction metacognition and
meaning making and then we know that the
joy and the process of creating this art
has implications deep implications for
children not only in their learning
environment in school but in life in
general I’m a designer artist and
researcher not necessarily in that order
but I’m interested in the combination
the connections between children
emotions and the art they make and
ultimately what this can do for adults
you know I’ve spent a lot of time in
school a lot since I can remember and
studying art the whole way and yet I
find these small people are some of the
most important teachers I’ve ever had
I’ve learned four lessons from them
through their art the first being
validity this artwork is valid and
legitimate and I want to see it
recognized by the artistic community and
the community at large for being the
contribution that it is let me show you
what I mean it also stands up to design
robust design critique which is not an
easy thing to stand up to here’s the
first example
a three-year-old doing this and what
intrigues me most about this children’s
artwork is they don’t have the formal
training they don’t have the long
extended experience that I have and yet
there’s somehow mark making these
remarkable pieces for example this one
here without any training this child
understands some pretty complicated
visual principles including visual
weight contrast asymmetry tonality etc
the list goes on plus again with no one
telling the artist he understood two
kind of secret little parts of the
design and art world namely everyone
loves the color blue right especially
when it approximates the color of the
sky on a cloudless sunny day and also
never go wrong with a touch of red
here’s the next one look at the motion
and dynamism created here nobody’s
telling this child to do this they just
do it this one’s quite exciting because
it’s quite sculptural some of the paint
raises almost a centimeter off of the
canvas how about this one
yeah it gets three-dimensional at that
point how about this one notice the bold
minimalism here in my experience
teaching graduate students I was
astonished to find the challenge people
had in moving from a tiny little corner
to actually filling the page and
children do it with abandon you know
have more space the better and knowing
when to stop that’s the trick how about
this one some people might call it a
mess
to me it brings the clip begs the
questions what is this magic how are
they doing this you know what this would
look like if we tried it how about this
one otherwise known as a scribble and
some people say it looks like a cat and
now you’ll never unsee that you know it
by now and probably you probably know by
now I’m not going to say it’s a scribble
because in fact it’s not it’s an
exploration it’s a it’s research it’s an
experiment that’s what these children
are doing and yet in design school we
call the exact same thing studies here’s
some more examples internationally this
is representation from Japan Turkey
Norway United States Denmark in other
words this is not a local phenomenon
this is global how about this one the
storytelling don’t you want to just dive
in and hear what this is about and
what’s going on here
charming and here’s another from the
same artist these are all
three-year-olds by the way this is
another one of his of his art this is
called the heart guy by age three
actually children have developed a
signature style which is quite
astonishing because parents can actually
go into a gym full of artwork and
recognize their own child’s this is by
age three how is this how old was this
artist when he made this this is by paul
rand who you might not know his name but
you probably know his artwork and his
ingenious icon design he’s the
mastermind behind IBM Westinghouse ABC
ups he drew this in my sketchbook one
day during class when I was his student
and he was 80 years old he was eight
decades you were years old he was an old
man so what does this artwork what does
Paul rands work have to do
you have in common with children’s in
fact this is the topic of my PhD
research visual simplicity may look
simple to do but I guarantee you it is
not what he’s done is he’s taken the
essence of the message and cooked it
down to its very core and then he begins
to play and isn’t that ultimately what
children are doing lesson number two is
presence in my experience in the group
work that I do the children are so
completely present in their work and
absorbed and their verbal comments very
often reflect this and sometimes to a
surprising extent for example they can
say the children between the ages of 6
of 3 and 5 can say things such as I’m
happy because I’m making something or
this is the color of blood from my
nosebleed yesterday or angry when he
starts and then he draws a superhero
did somebody call and then he feels
better afterwards or my mom made
pancakes for breakfast this morning and
that’s my favorite food and there were
no pancakes in the work I asked or as
one five-year-old told me and I will
never forget this painting lets me go
quiet inside lesson number three is self
judgment and self awareness in my
experience children do not engage in
comparison or self judgment of their
work much less anyone else’s until about
the age of seven when they’ve started
school and this lines up with other
pillar research in psychological
development what they do do is they
become very sensitive to adults
reactions around them and we need to be
mindful of this for obvious reasons I
can share an example of what not to do I
attended a weekend workshop of course
headed to the children’s tent there was
a giant table people all around children
making work it was a joy to behold the
teacher floated
around and basically did a desktop
critique on each child’s work responding
positively and smiling until she came to
this one whereupon and I am not
exaggerating she pulled into herself
body language froze up she leaned over
and barked at the child what have you
meanwhile the child slid under the table
of course and his mother came to the
rescue this is what not to do I need
less to say I had a chat with the
teacher afterwards and I did not
understand her explanation for why she
did that and I can happily report that
the child recovered continues to make
art and in fact doesn’t remember this
however I do and it changed my point of
departure from all of this what if she
had said to the child empowering the
artist tell me what’s going on tell me
what your emotions are all about let’s
talk about this and share it and ever
since then I’ve wondered oh she’s so
afraid of by this composition I’ll never
know look I get it sometimes it can be
hard to comment positively and
understand what to say when we are
presented with scribble oh studies
sometimes it can be challenging I
understand that what my point is is
maybe we don’t have to say anything
maybe we can actually just listen and
ask the child some open-ended questions
such as how does it make you feel before
when you were making it and now when
you’re presenting it you might just get
a rather profound answer the fourth
lesson I learned is focus with focus
comes time in every single session I’ve
observed it starts very quickly after
the creativity starts that the room goes
quiet in in artistic terms it’s called
the zone when when the artist enters the
zone and I don’t think we have a term
for when it happens to a group so I’m
gonna make one up
what happens with two and a half year
olds as they can actually go silent for
almost five minutes and you know that’s
an eternity to a two-year-old when the
teachers realizes that something’s
happening she can actually jump in it
makes her so uncomfortable that she
might actually be the one or he might be
the one to break the silence in fact
this just happened recently with with a
group not long ago that the teacher came
up after me and afterwards and said to
me I broke the silence didn’t I hmm when
it happens with third graders they can
go silent for almost twenty-five minutes
the teacher goes into her zone the whole
group is silent they’re working and it’s
a it’s wonderful to behold and then 20
minutes later she comes out of her zone
and says that’s never happened before
and she’s used to seeing everything do
you remember the piece of art I showed
you at the beginning this one I told you
he was young here’s the artist he’s a
baby he’s five months old and look at
his focus look at what this child is
creating you know this is food based
paint so why not just go ahead and lay
right down in it and you gotta have
respect for somebody who does a belly
flop in their work and here’s his new
work oh by the way that previous picture
that was when a long time ago that’s
when he was four months old he’s now
five months look at what this child is
creating look at the the joy and the the
amazingness of it all and here’s his
gallery piece if there were a gallery to
hang it in what if we had galleries what
if we actually had dedicated spaces for
children to hang their work and enjoy
and be a part of the artistic community
what if we embraced them as a valid part
of our artistic world what if
we actually provided rooms for them in
real places not just traveling exhibits
through museums or maybe school gems but
real places what if we actually had that
I’d like to see that you know humans
have been making art for well
seventy-three thousand years did you see
this new article in the journal Nature
by the way this brand new find it’s it’s
incredible it it pre it it puts to shame
the most recent discoveries of 40,000
years humans have been doing this for a
really long time and in the Younger
caves we know that children were present
because their work is in screw is
translated on the walls in the form of
these iron oxide stencils they were
present they were there we know this
from the iron oxide is the red color and
the black is the manganese and we don’t
know what their contribution was to
those to those artworks in the caves but
they were there they were a part of it
and they were embraced by the larger
community of art and so I wonder isn’t it about time we do the same
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