*Mr. Marvin B*art*el, ed.D.*

Truly inspired by *Marvin Bartel, ed.D.!!! :)
***He is simply amazing***

((Painting of a vase, inspired by shadows cast by hickory leaves))

"At first, I was stumped.  Not until I was open to asking questions of my immediate familiar surroundings, did I become inspired. I noticed something. The shadows falling on my work from overhead hickory leaves became astoundingly compelling and beautiful.
This work may not have a huge effect on the history of art and the world, but it is original and it represents a creative and inspired moment because I questioned my immediate surroundings, asking it to reveal itself visually to me."-Marvin Bartel-Source: http://www.bartelart.com/arted/questions.html

Who is Marvin Bartel?  Marvin Bartel is an Artist and  *Emeritus Professor* of Art at Goshen College in Indiana.

He was a member of the art faculty at Goshen College from 1970-2002, teaching courses in:
*Ceramics
*Photography
*Drafting
*Architectural Design

What is an emeritus professor?
According to wikipedia.org, an emeritus (emeritus; male, emerita; female) professor is a retired professor who retains formal or informal links with their university. 

Mr. Bartel was a keynote speaker at the 2011 MAEA Conference in Kalamazoo.  Bartel began by handing out pen and paper.   He gave us simple instructions like, "Write your full name on the paper...Draw a straight, vertical line from one end of the paper to the other. Gradually, the directions from Bartel became less and less *directive*.  For example, instead of saying, "draw a straight, vertical line from one end of the paper to the other, he said something along the lines of, draw a line that is not straight at first, and then becomes straight again, on any direction of the paper as long as it goes from one end of the paper to the other."  His point is, is that while still leading the group in a particular direction, he is not only guiding the group, but he is also cultivating *thinking* to occur.  He is teaching *learning by limiting*.  Lessons without limitations are not very effective.  This has been a constant question I have found myself as an art education student asking myself.  Do I LIMIT creativity by setting limits? 

Jane K. Bates touches upon this in her book, Becoming An Art Teacher, 2000.   Bates explains how *subject*matter* "may be necessary to provide focus on the what while the students explore the how...In allowing them the free rein to choose their own subject matter, you may be inhibiting their growth." (Chapter #2, pp.35). 


Bartel explains that without limitations, students are prone to fall back on easy "left brain" habits.  In other words, as part of being *human*, we naturally avoid the risk of doing the "unknown"...the "unfamiliar"...because it's scary and uncomfortable.  When thinking is involved, things aren't so "easy" and every persons results will not look the same.  To make another point clear, there was an "example" or "sample" of this project on the screen in the conference center.  Everyone wrote their names in the same, lower right hand corner of the paper because this is what the "example" or "sample" looked like!
((This is why Bartel believes in *skipping* examples)).

Bartel believes that studio art learning is uniquely essential in leaving no minds behind. During his keynote presentation, Make Up Your Mind - Creatively, Bartel spoke of how to foster and inspire self-learning and creativity while producing *empathetic* students who are creative AND self-directed.

Listed below are his *10* ways to inspire self-learning and creativity:

1. Skip examples.

2. Teach countless idea generation methods.   

3. Not too easy, not too hard.

4. Hands-On.

5. Fewer demonstrations.

6. Stop suggestions.  Use questions...Use Experiments. 

"To what extent am I teaching a form of 'learned helplessness' related to independent self-confident thinking ability???"7. Identify with failures and mistakes.

8. More self-assigning.

9. Empathetic critiques.

10. Team projects. 

Finally, Bartel mentioned how teachers offering suggestions when students ask for assistance on their artwork could be weakening students' minds.  Bartel says, "When I give an answer, I miss an opportunity to teach thinking and problem solving. This is a reason that children become less creative as they go through school. Studies show that 98 percent of three to five-year-olds can think divergently while only 2 percent of 25-year olds can think divergently."  (Source for study data: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/thinking.html#wither)
Bartel has his students visit and observe art classes in which they find that it is common for art teachers to offer suggestions when students ask for assistance on their artwork.  But offering suggestions creates "lost teachable moments."  Instead, teachers should ask *open-questions* and experimentation to guide students to make a choice about ways to move forward in their work.

I read a Bartel  interview on this website: http://www.generations.gs/TQ11/Creativity/sites/interviewmarvin.html.  Bartel was asked in his opinion, what are the "things" that block creativity in one's mind???
Here is his answer:

"Creativity is blocked by the fear of mistakes...
by our need to conform and fit in...
by a lack of energy and initiative...
by being conditioned to be a spectator rather than a participant...
by learning answers rather than questions...
by lack of practice in working with unknowns...
by expecting results too soon...
by expectations that are too high or too low, and by lack of curiosity and passion.
Creativity is often blocked by lack of confidence.

Sometimes creativity fails because of inadequate preparation, definition, focus, or because not enough downtime is allowed when the brain can process the many scenarios based on everything that it has experienced. In some cases emotions and passions are misdirected, too weak, or too strong for creativity to properly function." -Marvin Bartel-

Teaching art and creativity is not about molding every student into an *Artist*. 

Teaching art and creativity is about fostering every student to think and feel for themselves. 

*THIS was the opening quote on Bartel's Power Point Presentation for his speech:

"School should allow a lot to be learned, that is to say that it should teach little -- Learning is better than teaching because it is more intense: the more is being taught, the less can be learned -- In the end all education is
~self-education~"
*Josef Albers*Bauhaus Teacher and Yale Art Professor

I will end this blog entry with words by Bartel in which I *admire*: 

"Teaching art is also an experiment.
What if, when students come to me for advice,
I start by asking the students to review their ideas,
or perhaps I can ask them if they can think of a way to experiment in order to make a good choice?

I am sad to find that many college students are afraid to respond to questions.

Many have been conditioned to believe that the teacher is expecting a certain given answer for every question.
They are hesitant to make a mistake.

...When we find ways to motivate and teach self-learning we give the child or youth an immense potential. Good habits of self-learning develop thinking neurons and the mind gains strength. Suggestions do not do this. Suggestions foster dependency. When we give suggestions, we condition students to ask the teacher or another person who is assumed to be an authority figure or an expert. Why learn to think when others are more than happy to do it for you? These brains grow fewer neurons. Fewer thinking neurons are a big problem in today's world. Today's world requires constant reinvention--not only of artwork,

but of ourselves and our pursuits in life."                                                 *Mr. Marvin Bartel*

*Source: http://www.bartelart.com/arted/stopsuggesting.html

Bartel has a wonderful website full of resources and amazing articles:
http://www.bartelart.com/ and
http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/art-ed-links.html