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If the human being is made in the image of God, then a
portrait of a person can reveal not only physical appearance
but something hidden behind that appearance, perhaps a spiritual essence, a spark of the Divine. Having one’s portrait done may lead to self-knowledge and to self-transformation. Doing a self-portrait may be a yet more effective means to self-understanding and change.
Every artistic expression is a kind of self-portrait. Waldorf
students, daily active in the arts, create countless self-portraits in their drawings of houses, their landscape paintings, essays, poems, and dramatic presentations. A child’s every creation is a snapshot of her nature and character and an indicator of her stage of development. Good teachers can discern disposition and development by means of the work their students produce.
Besides this, from the kindergarten and early grades, children in a Waldorf school are encouraged to draw the human form. Eventually they do portraits and self-portraits. This work, an intrinsic part of the Waldorf art curriculum, is not just an exercise in observation and training in artistic technique but also an opportunity for self-objectification, contemplation, and comprehension. It can be an important part of a child’s and young person’s healthy development and process of self-discovery.
...>>click here to read the full article
VAN JAMES is an artist, writer, and art instructor at the Honolulu Waldorf High School, where he has taught for over twenty years. He is a codirector of Kula Makua Teacher Training Program, chairman of the Anthroposophical Society in Hawaii, and a member of the Asia-Pacific anthroposophical Initiative Group. He is the author of several books on art
and archaeology, most recently, Spirit and Art: Pictures of the Transformation of Consciousness. He lives on the island of Oahu with his wife, Bonnie, and has four grown children and two grandsons.
We here at Taruna are grateful to have Van James come and tutor the Art as a Basis of Education each year.
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