Off The Page

At some point in time the phrase "Off the Hook" became mainstream for meaning bigger and better than life- well sort of in a way!  Off the page is a way of drawing that I want my students to become comfortable with-as a way of saying "My drawing (idea) is SO BIG that this piece of paper cannot possibly contain it!!"

Think about it-whenever you take a photograph-I don't care if it's a selfie, or vacation, or an important moment in your life, or even a staged photo (think family photos) there is always always something happening just outside of the camera's lense.  It makes you realize that there was more to the moment than what is captured by the picture.  Well the same is true for artwork!  As soon as the drawing goes off the page it is instantly implied that there is more to the work than simply what is portrayed in the artwork.

The same is true with life-I want to live a life that is so huge it cannot be contained by one drawing, or one piece of paper!  And of course, I want the same for my students!  I want each and every one of them to live every day a life that cannot be contained by any measurement, not just the confines of a single page or frame.

This is another one of those things that I want to teach my students.  Not only should their ideas be bigger than the page, but hopefully (if they want it) their lives will be bigger than any page could contain.

In today's education system where absolutely every teacher must be concerned about the bottom line (think testing) and rightfully so-after all there are so many people in government telling us how to teach (and must I remind you of the old adage "told is not taught")  there are so few of us who have the ability to teach children to reach for the stars and that if they can dream it they can do it! We as art educators owe it to our students to allow them to dream about life "off the page".