The Innate Quest for Order and Design


What does it mean?

The above painting by a 3 year old male in 1963 is an example of how the innately felt quest for order expresses itself in a spontaneous painting done in a very deliberate style.  Children often refer to these compositions as "designs". These paintings are not intended to be narrative, as most children's art is.

This child spent about 45 minutes of concentrated effort in order to produce this orderly composition.  What does this say about the habits of concentration and focus that can be developed at a young age when children are provided a calm environment, support, and materials with which to work?

Laura Chapman* lists several approaches to creating art under which she lists several sources of inspiration for artwork. In addition to expressing Ordinary Experience, observing the Natural and Constructed Environment, and expressing Inner Feelings and Imagination: Chapman lists the Quest for Order as one of major sources of artistic inspiration.

Four Sources of Inspiration for Creating Art
  1. Ordinary Experience

    2. Most of children's spontaneous drawing fall in this category
  2. Natural and Constructed Environment

    3. Observational work fall's in this category
  3. Inner Feelings and Imagination

    4. Expressive and imaginative work is in this category
  4. Quest for Order

    5. Careful and deliberate designs, patterns, and so on fit this category.

    • Knowing these lists helps us keep children on task and involved in meaningful learning activity.
    • Knowing these lists allows us to give variety and balance to our planned art activities for children. We can help inspire children to follow their natural inclinations.






Three Sources of
Subject Matter
for Art are:
  • Observation
  • Memory
  • Imagination













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    Implications:

    If we want children to naturally develop their ability to focus on a task over an extended period of time, we need to provide a calm and secure environment together with materials and places so that gratifying self-fulfilling productive experiences can occur. Some of these experiences can be under the complete control and ownership of the child (with appropriate adult supervision and supportive comments). Painting, modeling clay, and drawing are excellent ways to provide this. How better to foster intellectual and creative problem solving, self-motivation, attention span, and those important brain synapses during the formative years?