Previously, my post focused on my students’ perception on why art is boring. Today I’ll tackle what I had to say to them when they told me that art was too frustrating and difficult (compared to sports).

Art is Hard

Clearly, the main reason many students believe art is hard comes from not having been taught how to see or how to use the strategies artists employ when creating art. In general, it has become clear to me—not only from teaching art but also from having art-related conversations through the years—that people forget (or don’t understand) that the visual arts require the synthesis of auditory, visual and kinesthetic skills.

Let’s consider a simple painting example. After I verbally talk through the assignment and check for understanding by asking students to repeat what I said, I model what I am looking for via a demonstration. Students then, on their own, observe the apple on the table, process the spatial information related to relative-size, shape, color, shadow, etc., mix up appropriate colors and then put brush to canvas to record what they see.

That’s quite a bit of information to assimilate when you are first starting out. I try to remind my students that the process gets easier and parts eventually become rote, but it will take time and practice. That doesn’t allay much of their frustration once they delve into the process for themselves.

The Importance of Struggle

Though few adults relish it, struggle is anathema to my students. Filled with fear of failure and/or the embarrassment of being bad at something as “silly” as art, my students habitually teach me new ways they find to avoid doing difficult things.

Generally, I find that there are three keys that make for a successful trip through a class in the visual arts: interest, practice and time. Because my school has few electives, I inevitably deal with students who don’t want to be in my classes. Therefore, interest level is something I contend with almost daily.

I tell my students—especially my seniors—that in college (and in life) they will be required to do things they don’t enjoy. If nothing else, I encourage them to take the challenge and find one new thing to learn every class whether it be about themselves (and how much they struggle with anger when they don’t get what they want) or about the class (and how meaningless to their future they find it). Such a challenge may not make their situation a comfortable one, but developing those kinds of life strategies will help them mature.

Right behind interest level are practice and time, the two inextricably linked. You can’t cut corners in the arts because of the coordination necessary to get better. Few will be fooled if you do. Clearly some move faster along the path towards proficiency because of gifting, but even if you are gifted in an area (e.g., sports, poetry, drawing), at some point, you will plateau and you will need to push yourself to get to that next level. That’s just a fact of life born out by experience.

It is practice or lack thereof that hampers the progress of many of my students. At the beginning of the year, I begin my spiel where I pick a subject—usually a higher math—and explain to them that unless they are going into an engineering or medical field they will forget the majority of it for lack of use. However, if they put in the time and effort, they could learn a life-long hobby that benefits them mentally, physically and emotionally.

Another day I try a “sneak attack” by switching the focus to the amount of practice it took for them to become good at their favorite sport. I ask my students if they remember friends laughing or ridiculing them when they first started playing. Every one of them had such a memory. I usually tag-team this discussion with some research concerning the 10,000 hour rule which piques their interest and sparks good conversation but has yet to translate into greater study of an artistic discipline.

Whether it be a misplaced focus on digital media, weak attention spans or the never-ending expectation for college “excitement,” it didn’t take me more than six months to realize that my student’s personal time is sacred to them—and that means it’s for entertainment and friends, not school.

Therein lies the rub as I bring this article to a close. How can the arts hope to flourish when the focus of my students’ time is on entertainment, things lacking difficulty? Of similar interest would be a discussion of friends and their influence in sports vs. the arts.