Here is an excellent article by Elizabeth Thoman entitled "Rise of the Image Culture," on the Center for Media Literacy's website. It's one of the most succinct takedowns of consumer culture, as enabled by media and images, that I've read.
The last paragraph of it goes like this:
"Thousands of years ago a philosopher wrote of a cave of illusion in which captive humans were enraptured by a flood of images that appeared before them while they ignored the reality outside the cave. This prophetic metaphor contained its own solutions. Once again we are summoned into the light."
What does this have to do with kids, art, and the Drooly Dog Drawing Project? Lots.
I encourage kids to draw because it gives them ownership of their creative abilities.
It also shows them that they have the power to make images, so that images become more than just something you passively look at. They become something that you generate yourself.
Encouraging kids to draw gives them power. It shows them they can make decisions about images and how they are put together.
So, give a kid some time and space to draw today. Or give them a new sketchbook and a pencil.
And, send me kids' art so I can write to them about it as part of the Drooly Dog Drawing Project. They are not just developing their own creative abilities and being seen and heard as they do this, they are becoming more powerful makers and consumers of images.
