Process VS. Product

As an art teacher I often struggle with the way to help students understand the value and purpose of the artistic process.  I feel that our world and fast paced society tend to force us into believing that our final product is what holds value and the process it takes to get there is unimportant.  In an effort to address this I decided to have all my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classes do what I am calling The Process Project. To set the stage I shared a video of a little girl named Aelita Andre who many consider to be one of the greatest child prodigy artist in the world.  I asked the students to focus their attention on Aletia's process and the joy she exhibits as she creates her art.  The students clearly were able to make a connection with this and were able to have a free paint session with no real preconcieved ideas as to what they were suppose to make or what their final product should or should not look like.  I will admit that the results were mixed but there was a lot of joy in the PROCESS.

Aelita Andre Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccPoUrLv4wo


                                          Students working on their process paintings.