Art: My Favorite School Subject

When I was in elementary and junior high school, my favorite subject was art. I enjoyed both the process and projects I did in the different classes I took.

During elementary school, the art activities were more craft-based than art (e.g., colored salt patterns in a jar). However, I do remember learning some fundamental skills and doing projects that I enjoyed - like learning how to enlarge a drawing using a graph (this was in fourth grade). My project was enlarging a picture of Pooh. I spent a lot of time on it in class, and was happy with how it turned out.

Doodles in my nature journal.

(Taken on February 15, 2011.)

By sixth grade, my parents gave me an opportunity to go to summer school. At that time, the classes I was able to choose from were focused on hobbies and life-skills.

For example, I remember taking a pottery class which I thoroughly enjoyed. I still have the clay wastebasket that I made in that class. In fact, I used it throughout my junior and senior high school years when I lived at home.

Nature imprints in clay that Sophia, Olivia, and I did.

(Taken on September 8, 2009.)

I also took a needlework class in which I made a crocheted baby blanket. The stitching, honestly, is better then than what I could do now.

A crocheted dishcloth I made using a new stitch I learned.

(Taken on April 9, 2010)

In 7th-9th grades, the art classes became more specialized. A trimester class would focus on one subject (e.g., calligraphy, pottery, rug making). I tended to take the classes in which I could make and use something. The rug I made from yarn and burlap in 8th grade is still in my bedroom at my mom's home. It's an image of a cat playing with a ball of yarn.

Rug in progress at Enfield Shaker Museum in New Hampshire.

It reminds me a bit of the process that I did, except at the museum

they use cloth rather than yarn (which is what I used).

(Taken on September 8, 2011.)

By the end of 9th grade, though, my parents strongly encouraged me to shift my focus from taking art classes (even though I enjoyed them) to classes that would better prepare me for college. Art, to them, wasn't a viable career for me. (Perhaps that was a gentle way of telling me I didn't have the skill needed to be an artist.)

The time I enjoyed in the art wing of junior high never happened at senior high. My classes were all in the other parts of the school - in math, science, literature/English, geography, history, and other college-prep courses.

I often wonder what would have happened if I did take art classes in senior high. Would my direction in life and career have been different than what it was prior to being a parent and homeschool mom?