Re-sculpturing My Dog

Reading “Classroom Research in the Visual Arts (Colbert and Taunton 2002)” I found an interesting review of a research (May 1987) where students’ media-preferences in art education were studied. One of the conclusions was that “three-dimensional materials were more highly regarded than two-dimensional ones (Colbert and Taunton, 2002)”. The 164 third-grade students were asked about reasons for their choice of the materials. Their preferences were related to the qualities of the medium/materials, to “how the material was manipulated or what sensory qualities are stimulated, the generic pleasure derived from the material, the product outcomes form using of the material (Colbert and Taunton 2002) ”. “The flexibility of ideas or expressive potential of the material (Colbert and Taunton 2002)” was also important for the students’ choices, which I believe, means that the young students wished to express creatively since they appreciated materials with expressive potentials.

I believe that possibility to practice, and develop, creativity is very important in childhood (and in the life in general). In order to establish a creative way of dealing with the world around us, it is also important to get familiar with a variety of crafts, materials, tools and methods of making.

Creative work with different three-dimensional materials, requires different tools, techniques and methods. For instance, there are large differences between modelling (where you can both attach and take away parts of the material), construction (where you deal with assembly of different parts) and carving (where you take away what you don’t need). These different ways of making, also require different types of thinking. In carving, you really have to imagine the form hidden inside because the material that goes through you hands, through your tools like hammer and chisel (or a pair of scissors - ?) can’t be put back again - the point of your start, is “the point of no return”!

Every time I stand in front of my dog and prepare to give him a haircut, I think about sculpturing. Cutting a dog’s hair could be a creative act (if I didn’t aim for a dog show), but usually there are limitations that make this type of “sculpturing” different form carving in a block of stone: While a stone doesn’t have “inner limits”, beneath the fur, there is a living body of my best friend. The three-dimensional form I aim to find, hides between my Kerry Blue Terrier’s skin and bones, and the shape of his new-washed and new-brushed, typical silky-soft, blue fur.

Some other limitations to my creativity are given by international standards for the dog breed. When exhibiting a dog, it is, of course, the dog’s natural body that is the subject of the evaluation, but the way the dog is presented plays also an important role. A good haircut can make an equipage be an aesthetic experience. A haircut made by trained hands and eyes can emphasize just the write details and lines on the dog’s body. Through contrasts, one can for example make the neck appear longer, or the beck shorter, but the ability to make just the write choices with the scissors is a question of craft, aesthetic competence and practice.

As a not-professional dog groomer, I tried reading the standards for the breed in ordet to understand what I should do, but this required a curtain pre-understanding. What does “good proportions” and “well-balanced” actually mean ? During the last 12 years, I sometimes had opportunity to stand beside a master of Kerry grooming during the 4-5 hours that a Kerry haircut takes, observing and asking questions. Then at home I've been training and training ... and I am still an amateur. But the “zone of my proximal development” keeps challenging me, calling me to keep trying, training my eyes and hands, learning from my mistaking... the way a craft has to be learned…

Reference:
Cynthia Colbert and Martha Taunton (2002): Classroom Research in the Visual Arts, in
Handbook of research on teaching. V. Richardson. Washington, DC, American Educational Research Association