Saturday Art School: Clay Activities and Golomb

           In chapter three of Claire Golomb’s Child Art in Context: A Cultural and Comparative Perspective (2002) early observance is made that research of children’s art and art practice focus mainly on the two-dimensional. The author observes, and I agree, that clay is a “technically difficult and somewhat messy medium to work with” (p. 51-52). Ceramic art practice is also expensive to support. The space needed to store three-dimensional art is valuable, the equipment (kilns and wheels) is costly, and the time spent by those tending to the artwork as it processes through the drying and firing stages doesn’t often come free. These are all valid, albeit unfortunate, excuses to discourage the abundant presence of ceramic art in schools.

In our 5^th and 6^th grade class, the students possessed prior knowledge of working with clay. They all knew what a pinch pot was and had all seen a kiln. I feel the experiences noted by Golomb regarding the evolution and development of a child’s understanding of three-dimensional form through clay art described experiences our students had already had. In class they did not require much instruction regarding how to form shapes that somewhat represented the features they were striving to achieve, nor did they struggle to understand how to affix these pieces together. Golomb states that the young artist struggles with problems also faced by older students. Specifically, “how to create a satisfying representation in a medium that puts a premium on balance, uprightness, and the modeling of multiple sides, all of which require great skill and practice” (p. 76). We only had two students create standing figures in the week 4 activity so obviously there was some consideration given to what ability they could put forth to make their creature be balanced and stand upright. Most solved that problem by creating a creature that was sitting or lying down, 

It seems to me what our students had been denied in their prior experiences was time to develop their skills with practice time. I assume (due to the circumstances mentioned before and the student’s performance in class executing the processes they claimed to know) what experience they had been allowed in school was limited at best. Perhaps they made a pinch pot and were shown a kiln and that was it! It is for that reason I am glad we had the mishap regarding the unfired work. Prior to that I had a lesson planned to embellish and paint the clay creatures from week 4. Since these were still green and very fragile, we passed on that lesson and chose to do relief sculptures using clay tiles and underglaze for week 5. I think this lesson was a hit. Not only did the students gain more experience actually working with the clay medium, but they also learned something new. No one had prior knowledge of the relief process or the properties of underglazes.