Empathy, theory of mind, and adaptive emotion regulation are critical skills for social functioning. However, the ways in which these skills may co- or differentially develop has thus far been understudied. We explored how these social-cognitive skills converge and diverge across a year of development in early adolescence, and with different kinds…

In this creative challenge, Surrealism and one-point perspective combine to produce images that not only go "beyond the real" but also beyond the ubiquitous "imaginary city" assignment often used to teach one-point perspective. Perhaps the difference is that in the "atypical cities challenge," an understanding of one-point perspective is a means…

The use of reused or recycled materials in counseling interventions provides counselors with an opportunity to use unique counseling mediums while simultaneously being socially and fiscally responsible. In this article, ways that reused or recycled items can be used in counseling are discussed. Practical suggestions for using reused or recycled…

The purpose of this research was to study the creative process in real-life settings and in a multicomponential perspective of creativity. Relations between the creative process and other important variables (mood, personality, and the creative product) were investigated. The data analyzed were collected in four applied art schools (n = 41) in…

In this article, the author talks about innovative high school curricula that engage students through the study of visual art in conjunction with critical study of history and social movements. Just as historians place a premium on locating and interpreting events in time, the visual arts are centered on getting an idea across in a visual form,…

In February 2010, the author arrived in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria, to teach mural painting at the National Academy of Art for his five-month Fulbright U.S. Scholarship Program lecturing award. He targeted Bulgaria as his host country in his 2009-2010 Fulbright U.S. Scholarship Program application because of its rich mural painting culture. He…

At the James Weldon Johnson Leadership Academy in East Harlem, New York, administrators, teachers, students, families, and community-based artists worked together to create a visually explosive environment that reflected enriched learning experiences based on their multidisciplinary study of New York's history. The Mano a Mano ("Hand to…

Neurological studies of the recently discovered mirror neuron system have allowed insights into the important connections between empathy, objects of art and material culture, and human understanding. Such insights reinforce an original connection between aesthetics and empathy, or "Einfuhlung", dating from 1873. Mirror neurons, empathy, and…

In the author's art class, she found that many of her students in an intro art class have some technical skill, but lack the ability to think conceptually. Her goal was to create an innovative project that combined design, painting, and sculpture into a compact unit that asked students how they define themselves. In the process of answering this…

The blending of information from an academic class with projects from art class can do nothing but strengthen the learning power of the student. Creating three-dimensional color wheels provides the perfect opportunity to combine basic geometry knowledge with color theory. In this article, the author describes how her seventh-grade painting…

In this article, the author describes a unit on monsters wherein students were charged with painting an imaginary character and, in so doing, demonstrated mastery of expression, organization of space, control of paint media, and application of the elements of art. Students discovered how color and line could be used to convey expression. The media…

In this article, the author presents a checklist of basic materials for two-dimensional activities that are necessary for an elementary-school art program. She also provides a few tips on how to use them.

As a man of mystery, little is known about Titus Lucretius except that he was a 1st-century B.C.E. philosopher-poet who wrote an epic poem called "Of the Nature of Things" to explain the universe and people's place within it in strictly material terms. In the poem, Lucretius intertwines myths with scientific hypotheses to propose an Epicurean view…

A symbolic dry landscape garden of Eastern origin holds a special fascination for the author's middle-school students, which is why the author chose to create a project exploring this view of nature. A dry landscape garden, or "karesansui," is an arrangement of rocks, worn by nature and surrounded by a "sea" of sand, raked into patterns…

When we view visual images in everyday life, our perception is oriented toward object identification. In contrast, when viewing visual images "as artworks", we also tend to experience subjective reactions to their stylistic and structural properties. This experiment sought to determine how cognitive control and perceptual facilitation contribute…