SchoolArts - May/June 2008

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DearMaryLouise, willingtomake.Formanylearn- studentstomakeuniqueproducts.
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—NancyWalkup,Editor. else’sdrawingisnotreallytheirs.
^{nwalkup@verizon.net}—MarthaSavage,ArtTeacher,Thomas Thestudentswhoare“notgoodat
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DearMaryLouise, Connecticut.msavage@aces.k12.ct.us
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I have been an art educator for many years. When I read “One Size Does Not Fit All” by Martha Savage in the February 2008 issue, I was upset. I know that art teaching has become more structured and students are less likely to truly create and individualize their artwork, but to encourage templates and distribute handouts to color in negates what art education is about. There is no opportunity for problem solving, experimenting, or personal interpretations. There are many ways to adjust art projects to accommodate different levels of ability, but this is not one of them. I am sorry to read this in SchoolArts.

—Mary Louise Dillman, retired elementary school art teacher, supervisor of student art teachers, Long Island University, C. W. Post Campus. mld4art@optonline.net

Continued on page 60.

6 School Arts May/June 2008

Circle No. 120 on Reader’s Service card.

independently and save face? Keep in mind that the expectation and goal is that later, learners become brave enough to venture forward with more confidence and break through obstacles of all kinds to get the pencil moving. Coloring, templates, and stencils do have merit. Are we so jaded against them that we can’t see it?

To make such a controversial claim takes courage and it should be followed with a descriptive explanation of the creative/art benefits of such. There are numerous examples and uses of coloring, templates, and stencils in art, which are staples of the printmaker’s practice. Aren’t Buddhist monks, when creating a sand mandala, basically coloring in a pre-established pattern, although the process is of great importance and requires great skill?

Stencils and templates have art historical antecedents in pop art, Indonesian temple rubbings, and op art. (Robert Indiana, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns used number and letter stencils!) Before that, Dada incorporated and experimented with these ideas. These methods incorporate foundational art concepts: the negative/ positive space dialectic, repetition, and the color interaction investigations that interested Itten and Albers. There are interdisciplinary implications in the science of optics and geometry.