Creating re-purposed chairs and tables inspired by children's ideas.

The outstanding question is ‘can children be considered artists in their spontaneous, experimental, open minded and curious approach to the visual arts?’ Picasso stated that all children are artists, the trouble is remaining an artist once he grows up.’ (Creatingminds.org, 2017) How true is his statement?

Research on the question: Can children be considered artists in their spontaneous, experimental, open minded and curious approach to the visual arts? Has brought me to look at creativity as an instinct in as much as children seem to manifest a nimble and wide spanning facility in the use of material, which might seem obvious at a young age. Taking a close look at the process of mark making it seems that they are not a tabula rasa but are unfurling an ancestral ability that has lied dormant and awakens as the gestures of visual representation emerge. Théodore Flournoy’s imagination creatrice (Van Den Berk, 2009) proves this point of a creative impulse. Furthermore, Carl Jung’s creative instinct (Van Den Berk, 2009)   shows how this impulse is rooted inside each individual, sometimes compared to a tree that is rooted inside us and nourished by life, makes its way from deep inside the human psyche to the surface and blossom. Once again, Van Den Berk illustrates this concept as he states that the artist reaches down into his/her roots and works like an alchemist transmuting the drive into artwork.

In this light the child could be in touch with the ancestral knowledge that as humans, we have accumulated proving an incredible versatility and openness towards demonstrating the human ability of mark making that unfurls the human story furthermore, it could also prove the resourcefulness that children present throughout the process. Of course, the impulse alone would not suffice but is at the base of the development. As Wendy Turgeon states (Turgeon, 2017) young children are able to produce striking pieces of artwork that are aesthetically pleasing and can reflect on the quality of their production.

I feel that the next step would that of understanding the steps that are taken by the child in his/her evolution towards increasing expertise in the visual arts.

Resources

 Turgeon, W. (2017). Portrait of the child as a young Artist. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/7496093/Portrait_of_the_child_as_a_young_Artist [Accessed 5 Jul. 2017].

Van den Berk, T. and Galama, P. (2012). Jung on art. Hove [England]: Routledge.