Illustrated words

The exhibition for the practical module of my Art, Craft and Design in Education course took place on September 10th 2014.

Aside from exhibiting our work we were filmed discussing our work! I had no idea we were going to be filmed and was, therefore, not prepared for that little surprise! As I was first up I didn't have time to think, or worry, about being nervous... talk about being thrown in at the deep end! I had to "keep calm and just keep swimming".

My work was inspired by my tweleve year old son. When he was six I discovered that he responded better to learning his spelling words when I illustrated them. This discovery ignited my interest in researching how visual art can help learning. I believe that using pictures as words can reach a wider audience than just young children... for example people with dyslexia or people with English as a second language benefit enormously from visual literacy.

British Folk Art, the recent Tate Britain exhibition, highlighted the impact and importance of the use of visual images or objects to communicate and advertise to a largely illiterate 19th century population. In those days trade signs were in the form of oversized icons, for example, a locksmith's padlock, a cobbler's boot or a hat maker's top hat.

I deliberately chose a child like style to illustrate my words because, as an artist educator, I've been trying to view the world through a child's eyes to try and understand what their limitations are in terms of skill an dexterity. This experience will help me to understand what they are or are not capable of achieving at a given moment in their lives.

I will end with a quote from Albert Einstein, "I never teach my pupils, I only provide the conditions in which they can learn".

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