The Art of Collaboration

In the chapter written by Suzannah Bauer in It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God, she focuses on artistic collaboration. It is more common than not for artists to collaborate in creating a movie, choreographing and performing a dance, or producing a play for a theater. However, in the Studio Art world, most artists work alone. Bauer even states that artists tend to think of themselves as “making it” when they are able to do a solo show, rather than share a space with other artists. Collaboration in studio art is not an easy task, but Bauer points out many benefits that can result from working with others on an artistic project.

For one, artists working together learn how to be a servant to others. Like many relationships, compromise is needed to find a happy medium between two ideas. Sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice one’s own idea or design and choose the others. However, as artists go through the process of collaborating on designs, the design naturally becomes the best it can be through the refinement process. Through all of this, an integration of differences occurs, and the practice helps the artists to grow as people. Dependence on others results as well.

I believe there is a great importance on learning how to be dependent on others in the midst of living in a country with independence being a high value, and collaboration helps teach that lesson. It is okay and acceptable to have others help on a project, not only to increase the quality, but to allow for bigger, more monumental works to be created as well. Much more becomes possible when there are many hands working.

Finally, collaboration helps foster the practice of effective communication. Dr. Nancy Roth explores this in her article, Collaboration and Originality. In today’s society, there are literally hundreds of different avenues of communication available. However, the inundation, and oftentimes impersonal qualities, of social networking leave many without the tools of knowing how to interact face-to-face adequately. Artistic collaboration forces artists to actively engage with others, share ideas, practice critique, and more. The time involved allows for these skills to be developed more fully, in comparison to the instantaneous and short-lived communicative qualities of social networking. These skills are invaluable.

While searching for examples of collaborative artists, I found a rather unexpected and charming pair. Mica Angela Hendricks is a professional illustrator, and she started collaborating with her four-year-old daughter to make illustrations. It begins with Hendricks doodling a head, then the drawing is passed to her daughter to draw in the body. Hendricks finishes it up by adding in final details, shading, etc. The results are pretty fabulous, if I say so myself.

One of the many creative and fun collaborative creations by Hendricks and her daughter.

Showing the step-by-step process of their work.

In a quote from Hendricks, she expresses how oftentimes she starts out with a particular idea in mind for what kind of body the head should have. However, she has to bite her tongue as her daughter’s imagination takes the drawing in a much different direction than she had intended. Hendricks states that in those instances she has to remember that:

I should know that in most instances, kids’ imaginations way outweigh a grownup’s, and it always ALWAYS looked better that what I had imagined. ALWAYS.

Out of the many collaborative efforts I’ve seen from studio artists, this example is one of the most fun I have seen. I love to see the imagination of both the mother and daughter, and to see them come together in these quirky drawings. There is much to be learned from their example! Not only are they both practicing being servants to what the other wants to add in their work, but as the mother collaborates with her daughter, she is fostering an imagination and artistic development that her daughter will no doubt carry with her later in life. It would be fun to see what kind of work her daughter does in the future.

To see more of their fun creations, visit http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/08/artist-collaborates-with-her-4-year-old-daughter-to-create-amazing-illustrations/.

Sources:

Bustard, Ned, ed. It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God. 2nd ed. Baltimore, MD: Square Halo, 2006. Print.

Jobson, Christopher. “Artist Collaborates with Her 4-Year-Old Daughter to Create Amazing Illustrations.” Colossal. N.p., 31 Aug. 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. <http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/08/artist-collaborates-with-her-4-year-old-daughter-to-create-amazing-illustrations/&gt;.

Roth, Nancy. “Collaboration and Originality.” Collaborative Arts: Conversations on Collaborative Art Practise. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. <http://collabarts.org/?p=198&gt;.