Children's Art: Process VERSUS Product

IT'S FEBRUARY!!! HAPPY FEBRUARY!!!!!!
HAPPY HEARTS!!!!! HAPPY 100th DAY!!!!
by Debbie Clement

Today is going to be about all things Children's Art:
Process Versus Product. Are you ready?

Are you just LUVing our collaboration by this point? 
I know that I am!!!! I can't wait to see what's going to happen here every morning! Before I get launched on my topic for today, I thought I'd give just a quick shout-out to those of you in the midst of your big 'count-up' toward 100!!!!! Happy Hundredth!!
[Sincere apologies to those early-birds in our midst who have already sailed by the big milestone.]

I LUV getting to make school visits wearing my 'music-lady' hat and just last week I had a delightful road trip over to Louisiana. I was fortunate to have a visit in Thibodaux with some amazing WeeWonders getting all prepared for their 100th day of school: playing and learning! 
What a fish-bowl of fun that fills as the year unfurls! How do you keep track of your days in school? Would LUV to see that!

Here are some images from Bexley, Ohio at Maryland Ave. Elementary, where I have had many a 100th-day invitation as part of our Greater Columbus Arts Council's Artist-in-the-School Program. These projects were completed at home under parental guidance.  What a great home + school connection for kindergartners!

100 Day Party: Fruit Loops make 100 Numeral

  

100 Day Party: 100 Skittles on Relief of 100 Numeral

100 Day Party: 100 Pink, Red & White M+M's  as Heart

Some parents got more involved in the 'homework' than others. Take a look at this! Yes. That looks EXACTLY like a gray day in central Ohio and the 100 marshmallows are just enough to accurately portray the typical snowfall. WOWZERS!

100 Day Party: School Architectural Drawing Surrounded by 100 Marshmallows

This concludes the intro-welcome of my post. Sit back and relax.
We're ready now to get started.... and I have a lot on my heart.   

With the growing readership here at our collaboration I have an ever growing wonderment, concern, anxiety, trepidation, excitement over selecting a topic for my monthly installment. I had things all sketched out in my mind and then our Amy contributed such an AMAZING article a couple days ago on all things paint. PLUS she kicked off our first every linkie here! We really are growing all the time!

Paint!! Glorious new containers of PAINT! In a box, in a bucket! ORAGANIZED PAINT!

In my enthusiasm to get some of my own previous articles from my blog linked up right here -- I've been thinking about painting and children ever since. This seems like the perfect time to take off my music-lady hat and put on my art-lady hat  -- to launch a conversation regarding 'process' versus 'product' as it pertains to PreK + K [and toddlers and first graders, too.]

CHILDREN'S ART: PROCESS VERSUS PRODUCT

Process vs. Product as Presented by PreSchool projects on Paper Plates!

There ya go people -- the paper plates say it all!
A universe apart!!!
Each of these 'plate' projects was created by a four year old at school.
Which is Art? Which is craft? What difference does it make? Which opportunity (art vs. craft, process vs. product) do you offer the children that you serve? Each equally? One more than the other? Do you have a solid rationale for which experience you use and when and WHY?

Process
It's all about the engagement, the exploration, the experiment. The joie-de-vivre. The moment at hand. The immediate feedback. Process, by its very definition is an 'open-ended' experience. It's you and the media and there are no right or wrong answers. It's literally: go with the flow + see what happens. It's quite possibly messy. Even TOTALLY messy! It's very often exciting. It's inherantly personal: process. It's a moment-by-moment, PLAY-by-PLAY (get it?) unfolding with the material, the medium, the moment.

Product
It's all about the parents, the grandparents, the refrigerator. It's pretty typically cute and gets the response, "Oh you made a ______." There's a preconcieved idea. There's a pattern. We need to march along and get the steps in order. Teacher has counted out the parts. Teacher has pre-cut the tricky bits. First this. Then that. This goes here. That goes there. Add some of these. Teacher adds a magnet. Voila. It's usually pretty difficult to tell yours from your friends. Sometimes impossible in fact.

Do you hear my bias? Particularly for 'young' children -- like all those under the age of 99. 
Often times I'm betting that teachers think that  'products' are used for 'teaching' a subject. I am here, with my degree in Fine Arts + Education + my camera, to tell you that 'process' can be used for teaching as well. Take a look at these penguins for further insight.  

Process

Every one of these students has had access to the same colors of construction paper and yet every one of their finished pieces is totally unique. Individual. Personal. Some artists proceeded to tear their torn pieces into HUGE clumps, others are teeny-tiny miniscule, but all of the artists are indeed engaged in the process. As my mentor Mimi would say, "Safe at any speed." These children know which is their work. I promise. You might even have a good guess at which one your child created..... even without looking at the handwriting on the attached reports.

Product

What do I say about these 16 penguins? They were born on the same day, of the same parents on the same ice burg,  and have eaten the same thing every day of their cloned existence?  In my mind, its like a science experiment gone wrong. There I said it. I am taking a stand here. I'm not a fan. If you were the parent volunteer for the afternoon, would you be able to guess which antarctic creature your beloved child had created? I think not.

In fact I think you'd be hard pressed to find 16 more similar creations of anything, anywhere on earth outside of a die-cut factory mold. (Though, if you do look very closely there is some slight variation in the feet placement.... and that fellow in the middle of the bottom row apparently has a lot to say.) This teacher has been very busy. Those children had the opportunity to learn about gluing. Don't get me wrong, there is something to be learned from gluing.

I took all of the penguin photos above. Guess which teacher I want for my grand-children?

Do you see the difference? Does this make sense? I realize that the "Arts" teachers are the very first to go in the economy at hand. That's the subject for a whole different article. I realize that every teacher is being stretched further outside their training and expertise. I realize that every teacher has big bulletin boards to fill, but do you see the 'polar' opposite learning experience for these penguin students? Dramatic.

It is a VERY clever teacher -- or parent -- or grandparent -- or librarian -- or scout leader -- or camp counselor that is able to create 'process-like opportunities' for their artists and end up with 'products' for the refrigerator, mementos and gift giving occaisions. Here are a couple of ideas that I've seen and ironically they both use my favorite element of circles and polka dots as their foundation. That's probably why I thought to take the pictures -- way back before Pinterest!

They fit this middle ground nicely: process-for-product.

Glorious umbrellas for the spring season ahead. Semi circles filled with painted circles. There has quite obviously been a model displayed, one that has suggested the idea of the colors of painted circles being applied in stripes of rainbow-esque design. (Ya know, I just couldn't resist that reference.) I don't think 80% of the children would accidently come up with that meticulous idea on their own. Yet within this modeled idea there is room for individuality and self-expression. There is novelty here -- unlike the Stepford Wives Penguin Flock we've observed previously.

Here's a thought for Christmas next season illustrating the very same concept.

   

Each child, in this case all with special needs, is given strips of green paper in various lengths. Each is given access to the paint dabbers of various colors. Each child assembles their finished project with personality and a unique heirloom is born -- worthy of any stainless steel fridge or professional framing. Combination. Process + Product. It can be done and accomplished successfully.

Food for thought. Just as we know about Multiple Intelligence Theory and how offering opportunities for each child's strength to shine is critical...... Just as we know about learning styles and preferences and how using a "VAK Attack" in our lesson plans to support, Visual, Auditory and Kinestetic learners is vital -- then we must also consider and give serious weight to opportunities for children so that they can experience: process and product as we design our time together. We need to know what benefits come from which and sculpt experiences accordingly into lesson plans.

My own suggestion? The younger the child the more "process" time for exploration. How about kindergarten be 80/20? Eighty percent process. What percentage do you use and why? Before that level of maturity how about 90/10: ninety percent process.
  


Life is good with balance. We need free and creative thinkers for the challenges of the day. We need those that are comfortable 'outside-of-the-box' immersed in the process when the light bulb goes off. We need more light bulbs to go off! I believe light bulbs light up, when we are immersed in the ARTS! We need individuals and lone wolves and marericks and dreamers and poets and explorers. We need creativity. We need artists!! Perhaps now more than ever! We need those who can collaborate and work well with others which the Arts are known to strengthen. The Arts have been documented to do all of the above.

We also need concrete thinkers who can follow challenging instructions, piece-by-meticulous-piece and get the bridge constructed. We need craftsmen who know the absolute parameters of following detailed instructions. Sometimes there really is a 'right' answer and 2+2 must indeed = 4 every single time -- no fudging about, no coloring outside the lines for my surgeon -- at least not during my surgery. We need mathematicians and engineers. So perhaps in the end we need exposure to both process AND product. What I believe is that we need the ARTS first. There will always be time for the crafts.

My own personal bias is that we give young children lots of opportunities for the process work. My bias is that we afford children the opportunity to use their innate child-like capabilities of original and novel thought-processing just as long as possible. The world will be banging down the door soon enough with demands of product + productivity. Let's let the kiddos be immersed in their childhood for as long as possible. Let's give them every possible opportunity to explore, create, sparkle with individuality and show us what THEY've got -- show us what's inside -- show us their process.

The moral to the story? YOU be the judge!
I am so very eager to hear from you on this issue. This is my first ever, public opinion piece. I'm looking forward to your insight and experience. Please leave your comment below.

And of COURSE I have a Pinterest board entitled, Children's Art. I have recently opened it up to others and so it is now collaborative effort.
P.S. In the last month over on my blog I've written a couple of pretty amazing pieces that may require you bring a hankie along -- in a good way. I've gotten feedback that they've brought readers to tears. These all speak to the power of the ARTS in the lives of children, in unmistakable ways.

Click here if you'd like to read of my little part in a BIG miracle for a young child with special needs, whose parents went the extra-extra-extra miles. It's the first written retelling of my being knighted the LION LADY.

Click here if you'd like to read the story of a kindergarten girl who painted a rainbow picture for me and what transpired after her painting during our interaction.

Or click right here for today's post on the power of collaboration and the Arts and how 70 bloggers from around the world have created an eBook of Heart Arts to benefit the American Heart Association -- all inspired by a four year old named Ellie JO and her numerous open-heart surgeries.

We are so excited that off into the future our collaboration has taken a quantum leap forward in supporting one another. We have opened our own super-cyber store! Pop on over to see the resources your peers have to share. **Better still consider opening your own EEE: Early Education Emporium, under our polka-dotted umbrella! Click here to go shopping in your jammies. 

               -- Debbie -- 

Debbie Clement wears lots of hats these days. She owns her own company, Rainbows Within Reach where her title is Arts Enrichment Specialist. Many people think of her as a 'music-lady' as she's written + recorded over 100 original songs for children onto nine albums.

She is most recently using her Fine Arts degree to illustrate the traditional picture book versions of her songs in fabric as small designer quilts! She blogs over at RainbowsWithinReach and her website for all of her products is the Dot Com by the same name. Acting as the editor-in-chief of this happy collaboration is one of her favorite joyful new hats!!!

She is grandma GeeGee to SEVEN precious wonders and yes, those two paper plate process masterpieces featured above are from the brush of her WonderBoy and in his permanent Art collection for posterity.


This article has been added to Kreative Resources.