Last Few Days of "What Are You Doing For Others?"

      7^th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Children’s Poster and   

                              Essay Contest Winners Exhibit 2012

Perspective Gallery once again hosts the exhibit of art work and writing from students in Roanoke City, County, and New River Valley. The event is sponsored by Virginia Tech’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) and the Montgomery/Floyd Regional Branch of the NAACP. Children in kindergarten through 8^th grade were asked to create a poster that depicted their thoughts on a quote taken from a speech made by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The essays were written by sixth through 12^th graders. Only middle school aged students created both posters and essays. Linda Green of ODI stated that this overlap was intentional.

In the early grades art is an intuitive way for children to communicate using their unique symbol set. Mark making begins as soon as cause and effect is identified by the toddler who “accidentally” scribbles on the wall with the crayon they are holding. From that moment, children begin the dance of art, initially creating spontaneous scrawls, and then as fine motor skills and cognitive abilities increase, more elaborate symbols which represent thought and emotion. This uninhibited drawing is the purest form of art. It comes through to the paper as a direct response to a child’s individual need to “see” their ideas. Often children will create pictograms before they have developed their knowledge of writing, carrying the full meaning of an idea through images instead of words.  As they mature, they continue to develop their own “symbol set,” which is unique yet universal in many regards. As you walk around the gallery, you will find common images in the work: the stick person, the rainbow, the house, the chair, the bird, the landscape created by two lines (the blue sky, the green earth). They are unique in their execution, and juxtapositions, yet are clear in their representations. Children creating work in this symbol-making mode are not self-conscious about making things “look real.” They are content with the creation of a visual dialogue using these symbols.

As children reach the later years of elementary school, the satisfaction with pure symbol making begins to dissipate as children become more peer oriented. Although still creating symbolic work, they are striving for reality in their representations. The horizon line drops in the drawings as they create linear perspective, houses become three dimensional, and shading is attempted. Often the mix of symbol making with these early realistic drawings are mistaken as poor attempts at drawing, both by viewers and the children. However, these too are a form of symbolic representation, a transitional step from understanding the world as a three dimensional entity. It is at this grade level that the essays were also added to the contest, so students transitioning from pictograms, could also express their ideas through a new mode; writing.

The exhibit is set up with the youngest artist’s work on the left, and moves up in grades as you view the work clockwise. All students bring their personal experiences to Dr. King’s vision of a better world through their creative efforts in this show.

Robin Scully Boucher, curator