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Melissa Anne Maccini

Professor A. Ward

Art Education 133

6 October 2016

Vulnerability

Vulnerability requires risk-taking. Vulnerability is out of a persons comfort zone. Art

creation requires risk-taking and getting out of a comfort zone. In Daniel Pinks book, A Whole

New Mind, he tells the story of a Hallmark Cards creator that visited schools and would ask how

many artists are in the room. In the kindergarten classes all the hands would go up and by sixth

grade not a single hand would go up (2006). Choosing not to be vulnerable is a learned behavior.

Opening the door to vulnerability can happen in art creation. Art can tell a story and telling a

story requires some vulnerability. Ursula K. Le Guin said, The story is one of the basic tools

invented by the human mind for the purpose of understanding. She continued by stating, There

have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not

tell stories. Perception, understanding and acceptance of the self-disclosure may not be

consistent for all observers or listeners. Pink said, We are our stories. We compress years of

experience, thought, and emotion into a few compact narratives that we convey to others and tell

to ourselves (2006). A person telling his personal story is vulnerable.

Just like the Hallmark Card Salesman discovered, kindergarteners love telling a story and

as the student gets older they become more reluctant to open up. An art project I could bring into
the classroom is an opportunity for the students to be a storyteller through their art. They could

draw the story using symbols and pictures to tell a personal story and allow others to interpret

what their symbols mean. I could visualize a cave man approach, but could be open to a format

that the student is most comfortable with. Telling a personal story even though it is not in written

word makes the student vulnerable, but as Michael Swain, the college professor that sews in the

San Francisco Tenderloin district and Ted Waldinger in the Ted Talk said, opening up, thus being

vulnerable, creates closer relationships, builds community, and is good for a persons health. I do

wonder if some students from different cultural backgrounds may be more challenged by telling

a personal story. I also wonder how different ages would look at the project. Just like the

Hallmark Card Salesman discovered, kindergarteners love telling a story and as the student gets

older they may become more reluctant to open up and tell a personal story. I wonder if the

middle years (6th through 8th grade) may be the most reluctant to be vulnerable.

References

Pink, D. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future (pp. 100-128). New

York, NY: The Berkeley Group.

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