A SELF-PORTRAIT EXPERIENCE: Grades 3 to 5

The children dedicated five weeks to the examination, creation, and presention of meaningful and conceptual self-portraits. The self-portrait show is currently hanging in the Wilcox elementary office. If possible, please stop in to see the insightful, and carefully crafted artworks. To respect the privacy and safety of our students, close-up images of childrens' faces and names are not posted on the website.

It is certainly important for teachers to reflect upon presented projects for various pedagogical reasons, and thus, I would like to share a teacher's reflection with parents in order to communicate the great successes, multiple challenges, an unending potential of working conceptually with children in the visual arts. The following is my account of guiding children through the processes of interpreting, creating, and presenting multi-media self-portraits in the elementary setting.

A TEACHER'S REFLECTION ON THE SELF-PORTRAIT PROJECT:

In the self-portrait project I took on multiple roles;
1) guiding children to examine, discuss, and interpret "art of the self" throughout art history,
2) demonstrating for the children the many possibilities and differing media that could be used to express those characteristics,
3) assisting each of the children in determining the individual or personal characteristics to express in a self-portrait,
4) assisting the children to present, create titles, and determine appropriate information for an elemetary school audience or for the artist's reflection, self-awareness, and therapeutic benefits

It was interesting to me to see the initial lack of enthusiasm of students when they first heard that we were beginning a unit on self-portraiture. I heard a few grumbles of disinterest in the classes. Most children felt that...

self-portraits are boring paintings of people's faces in which the artist is trying to make the painting look as realistic as possible. Some children showed disinterest in the process of careful observation, as they envisioned the final product having to be as "perfect" as possible, and ultimately being disappointed.

While developing the skills of careful observation, line, shape, color, and detail are very important in a child's development, the students were ready to be challenged with the concept of self-portraiture.

Students began the project by first talking about the self-portraits they made in previous years. Students shared their varying experiences from preschool to grade 2, noting how nearly all of the artworks of previous years focused on the drawing of the face. Students declared that a face is important in a self-portait because "that is how we [people] can tell who a person is."

Seconly, students began this project by examining many examples of self-portraits by artists such as Frida Kahlo, Francesco Clemente, Norman Rockwell, Chuck Close, young adults, children, and amateur artists. The following pictures are some of the self-portrait images the children discussed as a group.

Students discussed,
1) What is a self-portrait,
2) Why and how do artists create them,
3) What personality traits can or does a self-portrait show, and what characteristics are private to the artist,
4) What are the advantages or disadvantages of using a title with a self-portrait?

Many children began by drawing or painting images of his/her face next to objects that represent hobbies or interests, such as soccer or pets. But once the students began making photographic self-portraits, students were more readily trying unfamiliar or "risky" ideas, varying facial expressions, cropping out or blocking parts of themselves, acting, and creating props to go into the photographic self-portraits. The introuction of photography to the students created an explosion of interest and enthusiasm in the children. Suddenly there were over a thousand photographs of kids self-portraits in my iPhoto folder! Many self-portraits were pure exploration, silliness, or partly-developed ideas, but others began to tell stories, depict personality traits, or stronger, deeper emotions.

To be continued. . .

Posted on February 22, 2007 8:40 AM | Permalink