Concerning the child-parent relation and art. While teaching a Portrait class, I overheard this exchange between a hovering parent and her child.

Parent: Is that an ear?
Child: Uh-huh.
Parent: Is that what an ear looks like to you?
Child: Uh-huh.
Parent: Really?
Child: Mom! It’s a horn-ear.

I heard about this film (on Ed’s blog of course). Thanks for the link. I don’t know about the kid in the film, but I will vouch for the authenticity of Fran’s picture. It is 100% child made (but preserved by parents). Here is a comment I left on Ed’s blog regarding children artists competing with adults:

Ed,I’ve been thinking about the “child artist” topic lately and I came to the conclusion that it is really the combination of child and interested adult (usually parent) that is key to creating children’s art — if such a thing exists at all. Yes, the kids make all the stuff of course (although it can be fun to draw along), but the process of selecting, editing, cropping, framing — these go to the adult for the most part. The adult, let’s say parent, then becomes almost like a photographer working with a quirky camera. They can’t quite control where to point or what to shoot, but they do the darkroom work.

Without having seen the film you refer to, I’m inclined to agree that the parent probably did have a major role in the 4 year old’s art. The question then becomes, so what? Should we compare this kind of thing to work made exclusively by grownups?

Putting it this way, I find it difficult to make a quick answer. The one thing that is clear is that if the work is going to compete with real art by real grownups, it should be judged on an equal basis. That is, it has to really be as good as grownup work.

If we want to focus on the children’s art for its own sake (and that’s my interest in the topic), we can look at it in a different way. For an artist it is fascinating to see the simple pleasure that children take in making their artwork, whatever it’s quality.

“Accurate?” Yes. I mostly appreciate formal qualities as a means for getting me somewhere.

J.

“Intent?” Intent is really important to me, though I certainly do not use it as a parameter for defining what is Art. As you point out, there are many considerations.

K.

Are you familiar with the work of Bill Traylor? I came across his work at a time when I was teaching art to children. His work made me think a lot about shared experiences and the potential for meaning from the simple observations of life.

Also, there is an interesting film coming out, “My Kid Could Paint That.” The NYTimes did an interesting piece on it last week.

http://festival.sundance.org/filmguide/popup.aspx?film=4654

This post is more a reflection of ongoing thought than polished analysis, as you have each stated in different ways. I am very excited about some of the ideas that the post made me think about, as well as the ideas expressed in your comments. I apologize for the incomplete nature of the presentation. For my part, it has been worth it, even though the results are not yet clear. I appreciate your input and patience. This post could be thought of as a work in progress, like an underpainting, something we have seen with artwork but not so explicitly with blog writing. I appreciate your critique.

D. Do you mean that “intent” is the primary element in whether something is art or not? IF that were the case, probably the context of the vase would tell us that the maker didn’t intend it to be “art” while Fran may have been intending her work to be artistic. Or maybe, she just wanted to tell us a story.

If pressed, I suppose I would say that to be labeled art, our consideration has to include the artifact, the artist, the world out of which it was made and in which it currently resides, and the viewer. All have to be considered, and ultimately, the category is unstable, sometimes focusing on intent, sometimes on the artist, sometimes on the definition given by the world.

I think I’m more confused than ever by this topic, which I’m not sure I really understood to being with. But I’m glad I’m not meeting that crocodile.