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Students often come into my classroom feeling anxious, upset, distracted, or overstimulated from external or internal forces, seeking art processes to help them self-regulate. A new unit I designed that has garnered a positive response from students is sensory painting 鈥 mixing colors with thickening agents and thinning solutions to experiment with the textures paint can achieve. Not only are these fun processes resulting in some fabulous abstract artwork, but they open the door to start using art vocabularies like texture, contrast, and balance in a low-pressure project. Abstract patterns release students from the constraints and pressure of making an image look 鈥渞ight鈥 or realistic. When young artists get their senses involved in creating, this can calm anxious behavior in a similar way that stresses balls and fidget toys do for students who need to move their bodies to learn. Studies show that sensory art builds neural connections in the brain, paving the way for more complex learning tasks in other subjects. New canvases and paints with sensory mix-ins will be an ideal way to bring more of these experiences into my art classroom for the spring semester. When we learn about artists like Van Gogh, who imbued emotion into the artwork by using thick textured paint that preserved the energy of his brushstrokes, or Pollock and his invigorating splatter-paint processes, students then want to experiment and similarly play with paint on their own. I see teenagers and kindergarteners alike engage in art processes like finger-painting and pour painting, and it is clear that tactile experiences provide a therapeutic sensory outlet for my students with mental health struggles, trauma, and disabilities who often don鈥檛 have the tools to put their emotions into words. Thank you for contributing to student mental health through funding this project!
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