textiles issue - The National Society for Education in Art and Design

22Interview23Young pavement artistand making it a meaningful experience forchildren, is the essence of what they do. Topromote collaboration, Olly suggests thatinstead of giving a group of children apiece of paper each, they are given onepiece to work on together. They shouldthen be encouraged and enabled torespond to one another’s marks and notthink that any one is better than the other.Although he concedes that thiscollaborative practice might not suiteveryone as a lifelong way of working,he is quick to point out that as anexperimental process or classroomactivity it is very powerful.Olly continues: ‘Look, you don’t have to goto the North Pole to have an adventure; youcan go out into the park, grab a twig, someleaves, see what happens when you pushthat into the paper, see what happenswhen you grab some graphite, look for asparrow, look for a starling, look for aworm, look at it and draw it.’ He wants toinspire children in urban environments tosit down and slow down and respond toeach other and, importantly, respond totheir environment. In a nutshell, this iswhat Olly & Suzi do in the wilderness: ‘Wego into the wilderness … from our madbusy urban lives.’‘…performing art, music,acting, all these things arecollaborative events. You can’tput on a play on your own …but somehow painting [and]drawing [are] viewedtraditionally as a sole event, andwe are quite up for challengingthat’. OllyAmong the artists and people that haveinspired them, Olly & Suzi list JosephBeuys, Hockney, Rouseeau, Picasso andRothko – artists that have worked from life,that have a sense of history and the naturalworld, and a sense of humour. The secondgroup that inspires them includes peoplelike the naturalist and broadcaster DavidAttenborough, and they have beenhonoured to work with some of the topcameramen, conservationists, trackers andpolar explorers.Olly & Suzi feel strongly that it is importantfor children to understand the extent of theproblems in the natural world and, ratherthan being apathetic and thinking that youcan’t make a difference, realise that actuallya small contribution can be key. They aredoing their small bit of the larger jigsaw ofglobal conservation by combining art andconservation in a subtle, low-key kind ofway – looking at animals and interpretingthem unsentimentally, stressing their plightand importance – and encourage you to doyour bit too.You don’t need to go on a school trip to theAmazon or the Arctic to make the world ofanimals and conservation exciting. Try yourlocal park or school grounds. Get hold ofsome mud, find a worm, take time out ofyour busy school day to stop and actuallylook at it, then draw it. It’s quite simplereally, perhaps old fashioned, but often theleast complicated ideas are the best andmost fun!ResourcesBook: Olly and Suzi: Arctic, Desert, Ocean,Jungle (published by Harry N. Abrams).Available second-hand on Amazon, from £6Film: Wild Art: Olly & Suzi Paint Predators(Storyville BBC4). Warning: this filmcontains strong adult language, but givesyou, the teacher, insight into how theseartists work. Cost £10; emailnfo@arcanepictures.comwww.ollyandsuzi.comInterview with Arthur Morris,age 11, from Chilton CanteloSchool, Young PavementArtist of the Year, 2008What has winning the competitionlast year meant to you?It has really boosted my confidence, andhas given me lots of opportunities that Iwouldn’t have had – like drawing at thefoot of the dinosaur at the NaturalHistory Museum, and visiting PinewoodStudios to see film and televisionproduction.When did you first become interestedin art?Ever since I can remember, I have loveddoing all sorts of art. When I was muchyounger, I did a lot ot collage work andfinger painting; now I do more paintingand drawing, working with watercolours,acrylics and gouache, oil pastels,pencils, charcoal, even mud!Have you met Olly and Suzi?If so, tell us about them.Yes, I did meet them at the launch of thisyear’s competition at the Natural HistoryMuseum.They really inspired me and were veryfriendly and fun to be around. Theyobviously really care about the animalsthey work with, and go to every extremeto get close to them. They have hugerespect and faith in the people who helpthe animals that they want to paint anddraw. Just like they want the animals tojoin in with their art, they also reallywanted lots of children to get involved inthe Muscular Dystrophy Competitionand think about the plight of endangeredspecies. I think it is amazing that theycan use one brush together at the sametime to get such great pictures.Why should teachers encourage theirpupils to enter the Young PavementArtists’ Competition?Because it is an amazing experience,which anyone can enjoy, and because itis important for young people to thinkabout endangered animals. It gives youthe chance to enjoy art, help raiseawareness of individuals who havemuscle disease and help raise money forthe Muscular Dystrophy charity.The Muscular Dystrophy CampaignYoung Pavement Artists’ Competitionis the first major art-based initiative toexplore the relationship between usingthe pavement as a canvas and chalk asthe medium. This year, theenvironmental and conservation themeis Endangered Species. See page 2 fordetails.www.muscular-dystrophy.org/pavementartSTART THE MAGAZINE FOR PRIMARY AND PRE-SCHOOL TEACHERS OF ART, CRAFT AND DESIGNSTART THE MAGAZINE FOR PRIMARY AND PRE-SCHOOL TEACHERS OF ART, CRAFT AND DESIGN