the art of looking.

sometimes, asking, "what do you see?" can elicit some amazingly insightful responses.

here are some examples i've encountered, while teaching at an art gallery.

and just a reminder, the entries are not my personal commentary on the pieces or art collections, just verbatim retellings of responses i've heard.

6th graders


"so what do you know about Mao?"

student 1: "that his actions led to the death of thousands of chinese people."

"...okay. what else?"

student 2: "he's not blue."










Mao Portfolio of 10 - Andy Warhol

5th graders

student: "his mouth looks like a pecan!"
















Mask (Gongoli) - Mende

5th graders

"alright, so great jobs telling me some rules about the art gallery. are there any other question before we start the lesson?"

[student raises her hand]

"yeah, go ahead."

student: "do you have zombies here?"

"hmmmm, not today."

5th graders

student: "so there are some things in the african art section."

"....like what?"

student: "things that we don't talk about very often."

"i don't understand what you mean."

student: "things like this. like the top part. we don't talk about those things."

"okay..." [walk away]






Female Figure - Kongo

5th graders

"so what kind of festival could this be?"

student 1: "maybe a celebration of the harvest or new crops?"

"what do you see that makes you say that?"

student 1: "well, they're using leaves and grass and i see a plate of bananas."

"good! so based on what we see in the --"

student 2: "BANANAS!"

"....."

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