One of the
ways we can engage students in a work of visual creativity is to
provide a connection between an idea and their own lives. Art is much
about
ideas and ways of expressing ideas. Examples include the sacred in everyday
life, status and significance in portraiture, the confusion of the urban
experience and many more.
I visited a photography exhibit recently of work by a young man where
he
photographs the most forbidding landscapes; desert dunes, snow drifts,
the
ridge lines of mountains against the sky. The consistent theme in his
work
he felt was “always being in that narrow space just between light
and
shadow”
In 1839 William Henry Fox Talbot wrote of the new medium of photography:
Article Continues
“The
most transitory of things, a shadow, the proverbial emblem of all that
is fleeting and momentary, my be fettered by the spells of our ‘Natural
Magic’ and may be fixed forever in the position which it seemed
only
destined for a single instant to occupy”
Shadows are the most ephemeral and impermanent aspect of a landscape or
portrait. To fix a shadow in place is an important skill; to use a shadow
to
suggest something more interesting through exaggeration provides a way
to
imbue and idea into an art form. Shadows carry additional meaning in our
culture.
Consider the film L’Année deriére à Marienbad,
directed by Alain Resnais.
The famous scene where figures cast towering shadows while the towering
bushes do not. The meaning being, that the unacknowledged looms over
everything else in the film.
Exploring the shadow self or the shadow side of ourselves is a subject
that
adolescents in particular can respond to, adolescence is famously a period
of alienation and inquiry. Adult students can also desire for this
exploration of shadow; type “Shadow self” or “Shadow
side” into your
favorite search engine and the internet will reveal a host of resources
for
explaining and elaborating on the idea of the shadow in the human
personality and spiritual search.
For example; many references to the strength of the shadow side can be
found
in Jungian psychology where Jung postulated that individuals banished
the
aspects of their personality they were unhappy with and refused to
acknowledge into a shadow side. These shadow aspects are then projected
on
to others for punishment, allowing the projecting personality the
opportunity to deal with things they dislike about themselves by attacking
those things in others. It is from the theories of Jung and the shadow
self
that we receive the ideas of projection. In a work of art, the artist
can
explore the various meanings of “Shadow”.
To discuss with your students the idea of the shadow before embarking
on the
representation of the shadow in painting, drawing and photography, places
the idea of the shadow at the center of the project.
As at the beginning of this essay we said that an idea, the idea, is the
beginning and the purpose of art is to convey the ‘idea’ in
a visual,
non-rational and intuitive way. We would encourage the student to consider,
after a review of some of the literature, what might the shadow mean to
them. Do they consider themselves forever caught on the line between light
and shadow? Do they have a shadow side, an aspect of their personality
they
seek to hide and if so, how might they reveal this visually.
That said, the student can be engaged in an inner journey with a very
specific goal. To identify the meaning of the shadow to themselves and
express
it visually through their
art.
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Read our June Essay: PBS'
How Art Made the World
Read our May Essay: What College Art Teachers
Expect from High School Students
Read our April essay: Technological Innovations
in Art Educations
Read our March essay: Does Handwriting have
a Future?
Read our February essay: Copyright and trademark
for the art educator
Read our January essay: Counseling your students
on choices for Higher Education
Read our December essay: Why Teaching Visual
Art is now a Necessity
Read our November essay: Teaching Collage as Social
Critic
Read our October essay: The Place of the
Body in Education
Read our September essay: The Ways Artists
Support Themselves
Read our August essay: Why students should copy
the great works
Read our July essay: Hidden Clues in Works of
Art
Read our June essay: The Mathematics of Art
Read our May essay: The Importance of School
Art Competitions
Read our January essay : Art History
and the Internet
Read our March essay: Ink Jet Printers
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