Andrea Slusarski

8/23/10

Talking Points: “Child art after Modernism: Visual culture and new narratives” Wilson, B.

This article brought a new argument to what is “child art”. The author argues that preconceived
beliefs that all children everywhere develop in the same way within their art making are wrong. He
states that the culture and influences on these children “visual culture” are what steer their
development. Wilson explains the time frames when people actually starting looking at child’s art,
the different key figures that helped develop thinking about child art, and urges educators to take
his findings on the culture influences into consideration when looking at “child art”.

o “Drawing schemata and rules are constructed within cultures.” “Even when young people do not
receive formal instruction they borrow graphic schemata from the surrounding visual culture. (Pg
305)” These quotes stood out to me because they place direct link with images children
see and how they make their art. Is the author asking us to forget about the
developmental stages of art, or more include visual influences in their importance of child’s
development.

o Children copying and using examples to influence their own artwork – YES! Last year in
my second grade class, I showed and example and every student made a variation of my
sketchbook cover for theirs because that was what they saw.

o I also liked the comment “Child art should viewed in relationship to adult visual culture” ---
This is the only way we’ll know what they are into/know the changes in art and our culture

o “Art” exists within the culture = children our in our culture = culture influences children &
their artwork

Talking Points: “Teenagers and their Bedrooms” Grauer, K.

This was a really interesting article that brought out the importance of the “teenager’s bedroom”.
The author pointed out the influence on the media creating the teenager, as one of their target
markets and the teenager’s bedroom is their space to store their possessions they hold at an
importance. I really think this article was an interesting look at how to study the teenage youth in
order to know more about them.

o “Significant canvas on which teenagers write their emerging and conflicting identities . . . “
This made me think of my own high school room, and how now it is just an untouched
reflection of my high school years since my moving out.

o Towards the end of the article, the author stated that some of the teenagers were actually
“amazed” at how many things in their rooms were part of the “global media”; which is
interesting because the Media is such an influence on teenagers, however, it is so natural
and accustomed to their live styles.