Drawing to Music
By Sheila Ceccarelli
Following on from Paula’s post on Taking Risks in Drawing, Sheila Ceccarelli describes how she ran a session in which teenagers explored drawing to music as a way of enabling them to take creative risks in their work.
To access all content, I would like to join as…
An Individual
Creative practitioners, educators, teachers, parents, learners…
An Organisation...
Schools, Colleges, Arts Organisations: Single and Multi-Users
AccessArt is a UK Charity and we believe everyone has the right to be creative. AccessArt provides inspiration to help us all reach our creative potential.
guest100
January 29, 2014 @ 5:02 pm
this is such rich work and a really important experience and skill for them (and everyone for that matter) to have- taking risks! very inspired learning and has helped unlock my session for tomorrow (for higher education art students who have not taken enough risks when younger…)
Rivka Ozersky
August 12, 2014 @ 10:57 pm
I hope it’s never too late to comment…
I was wandering how did the teenage students responded to this exercise.
What did they experience throughout the process , what are they taking with themselves, can they notice any shift in their outlook to the process or final product?And what was yours, the
teacher’s learning experience
Nicola Fast
January 29, 2014 @ 6:38 pm
FANTASTIC! I love it when students swap work and draw/paint etc on eac others work…great stuff
Sheila Ceccarelli
January 29, 2014 @ 7:37 pm
Thanks very much for your encouragement! I will pass on to students!
Cheers,
Sheila
Sheila Ceccarelli
August 23, 2014 @ 10:04 am
Hello Rivka, The students seemed to enjoy the process – i was worried that they would feel self-conscious working to music but i think that working in pairs helped the process and made it more like a ‘conversation’. Also the group was well established and students had been working with each other for several months so were already comfortable with each other and knew me and my approach as well.
As a facilitator I had to be confident to allow the time and space for the images to develop and continue to offer encouragement to students to keep pushing their drawings.
You may also like to look at this session /a-big-visual-conversation-2/ where students worked together collectively to make a ‘big visual conversation’ and this one where students worked on a ‘portrait of a class’ /portrait-of-a-class/
Let me know how you get on.
Best, Sheila
Pat Carney
January 30, 2014 @ 12:04 am
Wonderful to see this process developing! The courage, flexibility and security in this group is admirable. A great deal of trust and ongoing creativity is inspiring to watch. Too often one is blocked by worry of the finished product; of being judged. How refreshing to see a cooperative process where one is not blocked by fear or being appraised. Or if there is fear, being held by each other to move ahead. And the results just end up being inspiring as well!
ellie somerset
January 7, 2015 @ 12:04 pm
Lovely to see this logged so well. The students looked like they really engaged and responded strongly with the sounds. I have done a similar exercise in a secondary school with year 10’s and 11’s. I covered the tables with paper and put out a variety of mark making materials out for the students. They were initially fairly shy but soon got into the action. I found it was a real ice breaker and opened up a good relationship with me too as their teacher (as it was a first session). I think it is similar in fun levels to Dave Meaures’ mark making responses “Battle of the Strokes”. I remember my music ranged from Zappa to classical to cuban to Tools you can Trust and the ethereal voice of Lisa Gerrard. Later I used to do this with y7’s (on their own sheets of paper similar to your session) to kick off a project on abstract art. It’s a brilliant way to get the students thinking about drawing in a different way….and introduce them to expressive mark making and materials.Think I’m inspired to re-visit this way of working – thanks Sheiila!
Sheila, AccessArt
January 7, 2015 @ 12:18 pm
Happy new year Ellie! Great to hear from you. Yes – I remember worrying that this session might be a bit exposing for the teenagers and also how long to push the activity – but they were actually fully engaged and kept developing their drawings for a long concentrated period. I found having masking tape helped to mask out areas and develop layers. Good luck with the beginning of term! Thanks for being in touch. Sheila