Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Q for parents of artists

I have a degree in art and my ds12 leans heavily towards the arts...so I guess I'm a parent of at least one artist.

I mainly wanted to say that your daughter's observation about the specific quality that her work used to have is really telling that she does in fact have some basic understanding of the beauty and truth that can be expressed in art. Cool stuff.

Perfectionism, shyness around her friends, getting older, all these are factors that could be contributing to feeling constrained when making art. I don't know if advanced instruction would be the way to go.
One thing I thought when I read your post, it might help if she has her own space to really make art in private, stuff she can hang in a small room that most folks never go in. Sounds odd, maybe, but seems to me that could be pretty freeing.

Best of luck!

Update on this: the art camp she did this summer was interesting to observe. This was a group of kids who were very self-selected, obviously--who wanted to do a two-week art camp. They were strong technically. DD was one of the weakest ones technically, although also I think one of the youngest (I have a hard time telling age, though). She produced some "enh" stuff, some fine stuff, and then a couple of things that were rather astounding--not, again, due to technical skill but due to originality of vision. The teacher seemed to be quite good, but there was again the emphasis on cool materials and constant glitzy "neat" projects. Very jumpy--new thing every day.

I wish I could say I'd seen her doing more art since, but not so. I really hope this doesn't fade away. I do think she is just so focused on what other girls her age are doing. Like you said, HowlerKarma--unicorns and name art. ergh.

I just wanted to reiterate the idea of a private place to make art... production of visual art is kind of the opposite of the 'performing' arts...some folks love people to see what they're doing while they're doing it, they dance, sing, etc....some folks are much MUCH more likely to clam up creatively when someone comments even just one time on their work during a class, while working at the kitchen table, on the school bus. But providing a private space can be impractical, I know.
That would perhaps apply if she's making art but it's not the sort of thing she's really envisioning...

If she's stopping altogether, inspiration to create can come from seeing a cool movie, going to a great museum, checking out new music, dance, etc. But she might just want to go in another direction, another medium might be the thing, as others have mentioned.

She has a new school art teacher this year, as it turns out. Though she loved last year's, maybe this one will be inspiring in some new way. She seems very, very young, though.

I just...I remember how she used to draw and draw every day. It was what she did. I used to have to recycle stacks and stacks of art. Now, almost nothing.

She does have her own desk in her room, stocked with supplies, but she rarely wants to be in there alone because she's an extrovert.

I've been an artist since I was a kid, and I was like your dd with my obsessive art making followed by long droughts. I've been spoiled that I could always "render" extremely well - and maybe that's made me lazy. But despite long breaks in art-making, art has never left me.

Now I realize that I enjoy a creative challenge to keep my passion, sometimes it's tradional visual arts like pastel-work, but often it's less conventional like jewelry design, creative writing, cake decorating, or cooking. I'm fickle I guess. While preparing for a watercolor show, all I could think about was learning the art of portrait photography. And manual photography led me to advanced photoshop which led me to digital painting (and who knows what next?).

Often art and creativity brews in our minds for a long time before it manifests itself concretely. If your dd is happy and using her creativity in other ways, I wouldn't push. If she hes sn artist's heart, she'll home back.

...sorry for typos, Kindle won't let correct. I meant to say : if she has an artist's heart, she'll come back home once and again.

You know--she desperately wants her own camera (we plan to get her one for her upcoming birthday). Maybe she'll take it in that direction for a while. She loves to take pictures of things around the house and yard and likes to try to do stop motion movies.

Photography used to be so inaccessible due to the expense of the dark room. Digital photography is so easy to access. What might be nice for your dd (since she's developed s strong internal art critic) is that photography requires no rendering...there is less of a chasm between beginner and advanced. It is a great way for any artist to understand composition and other basic principles of design. And it's fun! (As you can see, I adore photography)