Religious Art: or how to teach it.

Or attempt to teach it. Or whatever.

Last week, while incomplete, we did create and learn about a form of religious art; icons. Obviously, we can't do that again. Because it would be boring. It would be repetitive. So, how to teach religious art again in a different way.

What have I been teaching my kids? Or attempting to teach them? The motivation of art, of course! Eureka! It's the entire class in four words. Let's shorten it! MOTIVATION.


Awesome, now that we have that figured out, now that we are putting in to practice what I'm actually teaching, we can move on to how to actually do it.


Motivation can be defined as the general willingness or desire for something to do something. The motivation behind religious art is quite simply to inspire one about religion. To suddenly have the profound emotional effect on one concerning religion.

This to me is the very definition of religious art:

When I first say this picture, it grabbed me. It was in a hallway with tons of other art. In no way was it actually on display. I walked one step in front of it and turned right around. Then I stared at it. Never before had a piece of art work truly effected me like this did. It was like a punch in the gut, but not in a painful way. I had to blink back tears a little bit. It that impacting. I really don't think you can just look at this picture once and feel nothing, even if you have no religious background. It's has the ability to create an emotional impact in a split second. That to me is what all religious art, and all art in general, aspires to be. 

This is going to be the emphasis of our art class this week. How art can just sucker punch you in the tear ducts. How art can just grab your emotions just by showing you an image. Not just religious art does this, but all art. All art tries to grab you and get a profound emotional response. 

This does it:

This does it too:

This really does it:

They ALL make you stop and stare and feel. That is art. Religious art just wants to do it where religion is concerned. That is all I want to teach this class. The motivation of art in a few simple sentences. 

Other things I will be doing this class:

1. Not be making a craft of my own to help students have an idea of what we're doing. I'm just going to throw some art supplies at them. Not literally, mind you. That's violent. 
2. Not talk so much. Aspire to minimalism. 
3. Remember that my pet peeve is sending children home with wet glue.
4. Allow children way too much time than necessary so they do not feel rushed and because it is very fun to talk to the person next to you. 

Art History in a Sentence.

How to sum up art in a sentence? Well, that was what we tackled in our first class.

First of all, there is no healthy way to teach a class without commonplace books. It simply can't be done. Of course, you don't have to call them commonplace books. You might just call them notes.

But once everyone got their commonplace books, I had them all write one sentence inside them. The one sentence that sums up art.                           

                                      

Art Is Communication.

To me that sums up art in the simplest way possible. Art is an artist communicating to the rest of the world. This led to one or two shocked expressions. Then, like a good teacher, I kept talking now that I had attention. A book, (which is still art of course, a book is just a type of art), can help you understand exactly what the author (or artist) is like. You can hear them communicating through their art. You can understand their personality from their art, their religion, their beliefs, their politics, even their favorite color from their art. But, unlike a book, which you read, a painting is a little harder to hear. But that is what we're going to learn in my class; how to hear with your eyes. 

It just takes a little flexing of the optic nerve to hear an artist communicate thorough a painting. Then I got one of the most interesting questions I have ever heard.  "Miss Sarah," asked my student, "if art is communication and books are art, then is the bible communication?"

  While I believe that is called deductive reasoning, I must say, even I had never thought of that before. This just goes to show that I got a great group of students. 

  "Yes," I told him. "The bible is God communicating to you."

I am very glad to say that a collective dropping of jaws happened in front of me. I think this makes me a good teacher. Or maybe I just have really good students. 

It might just be an ingenious sentence I read somewhere once that struck me as so universally accurate that I had to tell other people. Which ever it may be, I think it's perfect. 

As far as this guy's concerned, it's also a fact.