Planting Seeds

On January 5 at 8:48 in the evening I received this text from a former student of mine. She was a student in ART 121 Introduction to drawing. When I saw this message I knew exactly what it meant and it made me smile. She was referring to a moment that I told her would happen. It is a pivotal moment where, in an instant, the training and practice of the drawing course enabled her perception to change. Instead of seeing individual objects in space she began to see the space itself projected in front of her as though it was on an invisible glass. She saw the spatial cues all at once, diagonals converging, scale differences, position, overlaps, detail etc. If you've never had this happen to you then you won't know exactly what I'm writing about. That's okay. But this student was looking for it. I had planted the seeds for this experience while working with her in class. I described it happening while she was working on her drawings. I told her to watch for it, that it would happen. I told her when it happened for me. I was driving down the road (not the best place and time to have a perceptual epiphany) and it struck me how small everything in the distance appeared. I began to see space collapse in the distance perceiving the differences in scale as dramatic, in a way I had never seen before. I saw overlaps, diagonals, textures, all afresh.  Simply telling her to look for the experience helped her along the way. It is moments such as these that gives teaching meaning and make it joyful.