In the past week I've noticed myself using the word "synergy" in the art room quite often. Our Winchester artists are working on their "Reflections" projects, and the students are interpreting their own idea of what beauty is, into unique works of art.
In the beginning of class, I've been showing class artwork as examples to the students, and I ask them "What can this artist do to enhance the details in their work"? And I explain to them that we are not criticizing, or picking on any one, but rather we are synergizing and working together to give this artist suggestions on how they could enhance their work. I explain that the decision is always up to the individual artist. But when we synergize as a class, we come up with many great ideas, more than anyone would think of on their own. So it helps all of us as individual artists to hear the synergized thoughts and suggestions of others.
Another way we synergize in the art room is at clean-up time. I love the kindergarten students reaction to leftover paint that I leave on the table during my demonstration. They always get in a panic that I got paint on the table, when I instruct them to paint all the way to the edge of their work. I tell them "Don't worry about paint on the tables, concentrate on painting to the edge of your artwork and at the end of class we will synergize to clean-up our tables". You can imagine 20 kindergarten students putting wet paintings in the drying rack, carrying paint to the sink area and wiping down the tables with sponges and paper towels. You can feel the synergy as you watch them in clean-up mode. They do an amazing job and they clearly enjoy synergizing to clean-up the art room.
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