Art is messy!
That seems to be a mantra we have here at Able Heart Studio along with “happy accidents”. Both sayings serve a few purposes.
“Art is messy!” lets our students know that it’s ok to get paint on the table, to not be perfect, to not worry about cleanup. They can concentrate on what they are creating and how they want it to look. In the studio everyone expects to get messy. Some learn to deal with it knowing that they will get clean at the end of class. Some can’t stand to get messy at all, so they learn how to prevent that with gloves, etc. Each mindset allows them to just be in the art moment and concentrate on the work.
A “happy accident” is something unexpected that happens in the artwork. We treat it as a new idea that may add a little “pizazz” to the work. We help our students evaluate if they like the new look or not. Sometimes they roll with it. Other times we work together to get it to a place where they are happy with it.
By keeping them involved in the discussion and decision making, it helps to keep emotions calm and puts them in control of their own creative process. Our students learn that flexibility and compromise can sometimes lead to something that looks awesome.
Joey had big paint smears on his paper so he added handprints and texture to create this interesting and edgy piece.
Georgia had extra circles around her owl’s eyes, so she decided to turn them into glasses. What a sense of humor!