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During a child’s formative years, their ability to create arts gradually develops. Based on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2015), art is “something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings.” On the average, a toddler at 15 months can already scribble, while at 18 months, he/she may already be able to “paint” using crayons and other art tools with whole hands (“Drawing,” n.d.). When toddlers start conveying meaning to their artworks, they will also have a mental plan of what they want to draw before they start instead of creating the art before figuring out what it actually means (“Drawing,” n.d.). Definitely, art implies something about a child’s development. Through a first-hand interaction and observation, a child’s art will be analyzed from the perspective of artistic-development theory as it relates to the different aspects of his development.
The subject of this observation is an adolescent named Jerry. He is a 15-year old Asian male who moved from his home country, China, to the United States two years ago. He stayed in Florida for the first year before he moved to a new place, which is why he had to transfer to a new school. He is now living with a homestay family. Because of these changes, his academic performance has been affected. He finds it hard to adjust to different school systems and to different teaching strategies. In fact, he’s been missing and forgetting his home works. Last semester, he didn’t do well in school. He got 2 Cs. His English skill is also not yet well developed because both he and his homestay family are not native English speakers. Thus, they do not communicate much, although he is being treated nicely by the family. When at home, he spends his free time playing online games, and during weekends, he spends time with his other Chinese friends who are also in the United States to study.
The art-making session is divided into two phases: the warm up phase and the actual art-making phase. During the warm up phase, Jerry drew an image of his iPod within a minute using a pencil. It is a one dimension picture using lines that were not straight. It also has a circle and rectangular shapes that were not well defined. Afterwards, Jerry was given 15 minutes to create his final art piece. This time, he was given different colors to choose from. Despite the freedom to choose anything he wished, he still drew a picture of his iPod. Again, he only used his pencil, leaving all the different colors untouched. Although it’s the same object as what he drew during the warm-up phase, the final piece is two-dimensional. The lines were straighter, too. In addition, the circles (the controller of the iPod) and the rectangle (screen of the iPod) were more defined and carefully laid out.
Before jumping into the possible factors that led to Jerry’s piece of art, it is helpful to first understand how the artistic side of a person develops based on Viktor Lowenfeld’s stages of artistic development. In 1947, Dr. Lowenfeld expressed his argument that there are six stages of artistic development: the scribble stage, the preschematic stage, the schematic stage, the dawning realism, the pseudo-naturalistic stage, and the decision stage (Fussell, 2011). During the scribble stage (1-3 year old), the activity of making marks is just done for enjoyment, and the marks and its meaning have no connection yet (Fussell, 2011). The preschematic stage (3-4 years old), on the other hand, is the period when children connect the markings to the world that surrounds them. The next stage, schematic (5-6 years old), is when the markings are clearly assigned to the objects that children want to represent (Fussell, 2011). The dawning stage, which occurs between 7-9 years of age, is when children become more critical of their artwork. They also become concerned with the spatial element of what they create (Fussell, 2011). Next is the pseudo-naturalistic stage (10-13 years old) in which children strive to make their artwork with a sense of realism, a period when frustration is quite common (Fussell, 2011). The last stage is called the decision stage (13-16 years old) when children decide whether they have the skills for the activity and whether they enjoy it or not (Fussell, 2011). Their decision is influenced by different factors and not just their level of skills in painting or drawing.
Now, the outcome of Jerry’s artwork as well as his own thoughts about it showed that his artistic output is just right for his age. At 15, he already reached the last stage of Lowenfeld’s stages of artistic development. After creating his work, the reason behind his choice of subject was determined. He was asked why he chose to draw an iPod for the warm up phase. Then, he replied that it’s because the iPod was the object closest to him (Last Name, 2016). He was also asked why he did not change his subject during the next phase of the session. He said that he chose the same thing during the 15 minutes period because it was hard for him to draw based on his imagination alone (Last Name, 2016). He added that it’s easier for him to create an art work based on reality or based on what he can see, and the nearest one he could see that time was his iPod (Last Name, 2016). He was also asked about what else he would want to do with his drawing. He said that if he could add more to the image, he would probably draw headphones and add more details to the iPod’s interface (Last Name, 2016). When asked whether she would like to draw something else given more time, he said he could probably draw something from his imagination or a funny image he once saw online (Last Name, 2016). Towards the end of the interaction with Jerry, he said some words which confirm that he already reached the decision stage. Jerry said that “I tried to draw when I was little, but I couldn’t draw well, and I got so frustrated. Then I gave up” (Last Name, 2016). From Jerry’s words, it can be concluded that before he reached the decision stage, he first passed the pseudo-naturalistic stage. This means that when he felt like he was not successful in drawing, he became frustrated, a feeling that ignited his ultimate decision to quit developing his skills. He accepted the idea that he does not possess artistic skills. Clearly, Lowenfeld’s six stages of development help describe Jerry’s artistic development. Future directions on this topic may tap on the ideas about what could have changed Jerry’s decision. For instance, if Jerry’s microsystems were not able to influence him to develop his artistic skills further, could the other ecological levels create a certain shift, and if so, how? Another topic to possibly explore is whether his decision could be changed later in life, even after the adolescence stage.
Aside from Lowenfeld’s theory, the Ecological Models of Human Development may also help explain Jerry’s artwork and perception towards art. Therefore, it is important to take a look at the basic premise of this theory which is developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner. He believes that “in order to understand human development, one must consider the entire ecological system in which growth occurs” (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). The levels included in this model are microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems, macrosystems, and chronosystems. The first level, the microsystems, refers to the immediate environment, which includes the family and the caregivers in and out of school. Bronfenbrenner (1994) states that microsystems also include “pattern of activities, social roles, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person in a given face-to-face setting.” The pieces of information gathered during the art making session only relates to Jerry’s microsystems; therefore, evaluation and analysis of his piece of art will only be based on this level. It is impossible to discuss his artistic development as influenced by his exosystems, for instance. This level includes the processes and activities that occur between two settings, at least one of which does not directly affect the child (Oswalt, 2015). However, Jerry did not share insights about these aspects of his life.
As previously mentioned, Jerry also shared a bit of information about his parents. Ironically, Jerry’ mother is an art teacher. Although he failed to share the exact occupation of his father, he said that he is interested in the field of Math. Using these pieces of information, different possibilities may be constructed about Jerry’s artistic development from the ecological development perspective. First, it is possible that as he went through the scribble, pre-schematic, dawning realism, and pseudo-naturalistic stage, he did not receive enough encouragement from his parents or caregivers. Another possibility is that he may have received negative feedback from his work, which may have affected his own perception of his ability to create sensible piece of art. Given that his mother is an art teacher, witnessing her works could probably play in his artistic development as well. His mother’s work is a part of the microsystems that greatly influence his development. There is a chance that as he was growing up, his success in art was being defined by the works or skills of his mother. When Jerry mentioned how he used to feel frustrated with art making process, it is probably because he was not able to attain the level of success that was defined by the skills of his mother. Thus, as he reached the decision stage, he decided that art was not for him. To justify his decision, he is relating his current lack of interest in arts with his father’s interest in Math. Jerry believes that he shares this same interest with him. These are only possibilities based on the limited pieces of information that were shared by Jerry. These are not conclusive as the other ecological levels could have influenced Jerry’s artistic development, too.
Overall, Jerry’s behavior during the art making activity showed that he is lacking interest in using or further developing his artistic skills. He was not eager to exert some effort to use his imagination in drawing. This is evident when he did not take the effort to think of something more creative to draw. In addition, he also neglected another tool (colors), which otherwise could have made his piece of art more attractive. This means that he was not concerned in making his art work the best that it can possibly be. He also admitted that he only use his art skills in drawing when needed, and he is not interested on this area. Based on Lowenfeld’s stages of artistic development, Jerry is already in the last stage, the decision stage. Also, he already decided that art is not for him. How the microsystems level influenced his decision and perception about his art skills is not certain, but it definitely impacted his artistic development in one way or another.
References
Art (2015). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/art
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological models of human development. International Encyclopedia of Education, 3. Retrieved from http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/35bronfebrenner94.pdf
Drawing and scribbling: toddler development (2016). Babycentre. Retrieved from http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a556909/drawing-and-scribbling-toddler-development
Fussell, M. (2011). The stages of artistic development. TheVisualInstructor.com. Retrieved from http://thevirtualinstructor.com/blog/the-stages-of-artistic-development
Oswalt, A. (2015). Urie Bronfenbrenner and Child Development. MentalHelp.net. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhelp.net/articles/urie-bronfenbrenner-and-child-development/
