Learning from the little ones

I remember my first year teaching art at an elementary school watching how the kindergarteners and 1st graders were so full of free wild expression. Their paintings often went off the sides of the paper and outside the lines they had drawn. They used a wild range of colors and layered the paint based on impulse and whim. Every kid’s style was so unique and different.

The second grade classrooms were always a completely different vibe- groups of friends imitated each other’s colors, shapes and designs. Kids watch what each other made and then most of them made artistic choices based on what would fit in with the rest of the group.

That patten of imitation continued until middle school where more than half the kids didn’t even want to join in on the art making because they had deeply internalized that they “weren’t creative”

To be clear- I don’t think imitation is bad- I think it can be an amazing place to learn- but I think we can lose a sense of our own unique voice if we don’t remember to tie that part back in.

I was thinking about this when I created this month’s new print- We Learn. I was thinking about how much I enjoy watching younger kids move their bodies without inhibitions and how when I’m watching I feel the ache in my own body to do the same. We all get so protected over time. So much of early childhood education is about guiding kids to learn to work together and so much of life as an adult for me, has been how to remember my childlike sense of freedom of expression.

We Learn is my newest piece and it’s a limited edition print of just 24 prints. They are each hand printed on beautiful peacock blue paper and individually signed and numbered. This is a print for a teacher, a print for a life long learner, its a print to hang in a child’s room.

Learn more about prints here

Here’s to letting go of our inhibitions, here’s to learning from the old and young alike,

Jen