Many people, my students included think that artists are born with some special power to create and think of unique ideas. This of course is not true and so lately I have been spending quite a bit of time thinking of ways to help my students learn to cultivate ideas.

If you think about any art you may have enjoyed it was often a piece that reminded you of something or some feeling. The art had to do with everyday life. Teaching my students that their own lives can be the source for inspiration is one of my goals. You don’t have to make a picture with particularly exciting subject matter in order for it to be effective. I remember a simple painting of laundry drying on a clothsline that spoke to me in such a way that it brought back a flood of memories, the color in the sky, the way the laundry blew about in the breeze.

Right now in our room we have some long pieces of paper put up-one asks WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR GREAT IDEA? The other asks WHAT IS YOUR GREAT IDEA? Just by adding to this  list and reading it out periodically the hope is that my students will see that ideas come from all sorts of places,  and that some are grand and some are simple. I love reading it myself. We also talked about famous creative people and how some of their ideas came to them in weird places like while they were driving or in the shower.

Where  and when do you get your best  ideas?  I encourage you to share them with your children.