Blog #5: Portrait of Possibility

My Portrait of Possibility is a 4^th grade girl who I will call Ashley.  I think VTS with be both a help and a challenge to her.  She had multiple great ideas to contribute to our VTS discussion of the Portrait of a Musician.  She noticed details about the instrument and the “formal” clothing of the musician.  I think she shows the potential to really grow in our VTS discussions, and that growth might help her in the artmaking portions of the class too.  She seems very spirited and has some trouble focusing.  I noted her bouncing around the room and was a little behind the rest of the class in the art process.  At one point she denied that her name was “Ashley” even though she was working on a project based on her name, “Ashley,” written largely across the page in front of her.  Luckily, I am not so easily fooled.

I think VTS will help develop her attention span as it grabs her attention with a work of art, but still requires her to sit quietly and contemplate.  This might help her better sit still and focus on her artwork.  I also think that looking at art will help her learn to value her own work and encourage her to concentrate and invest more time in it. I hope further VTS discussions will also encourage her to look more deeply past the obvious in the artworks and that I will be able to see her begin to notice more subtle details and meanings in the art.