Form 4 art workshop with Chris Aizner

by H. Prado

For IGCSE, art students must produce their works according to a constraint and in order to do so effectively, pupils create a portfolio showcasing their creative process (what their ideas were at the beginning and what their path to the final product has been). In general, the portfolio demonstrates the thinking and testing necessary as well as pupils' viewpoint of things and how it impacts their work. 
Similarly, when set-designer Chris Aizner came to St. Pauls he explained to Form 4 pupils that as part of his job he also experiences a constraint in his work: the theme of the play decided by the director. However, this is not a disadvantage to him, uses the constraints to track the development of his thoughts; he uses the creative process as a preparation in order to make his work the best it can be, and he emphasised to pupils how they should do this too. Aizner mentioned how keeping a portfolio is actually very beneficial in order to look back at how you began your work, noticing how far you have come from the start and feeling a sense of fulfilment. With the creative process, through the working and development of your ideas, you show the viewers of your work the elements that provoked a certain effect on you which will be reflected on them. Additionally, the set-designer explained that using the creative process might lead to ideas for future projects by experiencing with different mediums and testing different things.  
Overall, the workshop enabled Form 4s to recognise how different people go through the creative process and how constraints can actually help, not restrain pupils, as it will make their thinking more objective. This will be very helpful once they decide the theme for their IGCSE as they will already know the advantage to this and how the creative process is essential not only for art, but for the development of ideas in general.