Tishkov is simply brief but bright. Creativity in art

The aching spirit heals the hymn
E. Baratynsky

Art therapy, if we understand it as a purposeful use of certain psychological and medical effects artistic creativity and perception, seems to be a very recent phenomenon from a historical point of view.

But we can hardly be mistaken in saying that it is, not in name, but in essence, the same age as art itself. And that means a person. After all, what we now call art is the original sign and indisputable evidence of human existence in the world. No matter how far back knowledge extends, we see that the being, confidently and without reservations called man, has always created some or other spatial or temporal forms that contain and express something greater than themselves. And because of this, they retain in the person himself an unconscious, and sometimes conscious sense of belonging to another, greater, imperishable, to some deep, invisible dimension of the world and himself. Looking ahead, I will say: such an experience is vital and healing in the most generalized, undifferentiated sense of the word.

Indirect confirmation of the fact that art therapy is rooted in immemorial antiquity can be the practices of the so-called traditional, or "primitive" societies, psychologically and physically influencing people with rhythmic-intonation, motor-plastic, color-symbolic aspects of rituals.

Arts in more modern sense words that emerged from the primary ritual-magical syncret also showed therapeutic potential from ancient times. In particular, the legends about Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans testify that the purposeful application of one or another musical mode changed the internal state, intentions and actions of people. Plato clearly saw the educational and therapeutic possibilities of the arts. True, he also saw that, under certain conditions, their effect can become destructive - but what healing agent cannot be said the same? However enigmatic the full meaning of the Aristotelian catharsis remains, there is no doubt that it signifies some kind of renewal and purification of the soul under the influence of the stage action, and so on and so forth.

Let us return to modern art therapy, which is becoming more and more visible, even a fashionable component of psychological practice. It branches, gives rise to new directions: music therapy, animation, bibliotherapy, choreo-, puppet-, color-, fairy-tale therapy, therapeutic modeling, therapeutic theater ... sleep, pressure, speech, sensorimotor sphere, communicative abilities, problems of correction, rehabilitation, support for people with disabilities… The actions of an art therapist are “targeted”, sometimes even prescription. So, lists of musical works are created, listening to which is shown in a particular case; pieces are specially composed, the conflicts of which should help the performers resolve similar traumatic situations in their home or studio life.

I note that such an approach to art, although justified by a good purpose and efficiency, is of a utilitarian-applied nature: the therapist uses separate, essentially peripheral features of the arts and specific works, correlating them with the same specific circumstances of the client's life. The universal essence of art, the artistic transformation of being, what, according to M. Prishvin, encourages the writer to “seriously translate his life into words”, remains in the background. Below I will consider the possibility of a different approach, which I almost “let slip” at the very beginning of the article.

A wonderful teacher-animator and art therapist Y. Krasny called one of his books “Art is always therapy” (3). The book is about seriously ill children and extremely specific methods of working with them in an animation studio, but the title speaks eloquently about the fact that immersion in the sphere of artistic development of the world is healing and beneficial in itself. And not only for a person recognized as sick.

This is confirmed by science and pedagogical practice. Thus, domestic and foreign studies in the field of musical psychology reveal the beneficial effects of music in personal and intellectual terms ((4); (5)), talk about its holistic positive impact on the child, starting from the prenatal period (6). Intensified visual arts not only intensify the overall mental development of adolescents, but also correct distortions in the value sphere (7), increase mental activity and overall school performance (8). It is well known that in those educational institutions where at least some kind of artistic creativity is given worthy attention, the emotional tone of children rises, they begin to have a better attitude towards teaching and the school itself, suffer less from the notorious overloads and school neuroses, get sick less often and study better.

So it's time to talk not only about art therapy for those who already need it, but also about universal "art prevention" - and prevention, as you know, is better than treatment in all respects. In anticipation of the time when something similar will become possible in the domestic general education, we will try to figure out how the experience of artistic creation, communication with art can have a healing effect on the human personality.

You have to start from afar. But first, let's make some important reservations.

The first of these is necessary to forestall one all too obvious objection. Many phenomena of modern art, especially of our days (I'm talking about the art of a serious professional level), to put it mildly, are not carriers and "generators" of mental health; As for the inner state and fate of some talented people of art, you would not wish this on your children and students. What are the grounds for asserting that mental health is so closely related to artistic creativity? I will say right away: the shadow sides modern culture, including artistic culture, are quite real, but their discussion must be conducted, starting, directly and figuratively, "from Adam". We cannot undertake anything similar within the framework of this work, and therefore, keeping this side of the matter in mind, we will talk about the undoubtedly positive aspects of human artistic creativity, which undoubtedly prevail on the scale of the history of culture. In addition, the above objection refers exclusively to the professional artistic environment of a certain historical period. We are now talking about art in general education, and here its positive role is beyond doubt and is confirmed by the above examples. As for the very differences between “general human” and professional artistic experience, this topic also requires a special in-depth discussion. For the time being, we will limit ourselves to a brief hint: in today's secularized and extremely specialized culture, these two areas are almost as different as healthy physical education for all - and high-performance sports, fraught with psychological and physical injuries.

And the second caveat. The considerations set forth below do not claim to be conclusive in the traditional, "strictly scientific" sense of the word. Like everything else in the “other-scientific”, humanitarian sphere of knowledge, they strive not for the “accuracy of knowledge”, but for the “depth of penetration” (9), and they are turned to a holistic, not fully verbalized experience of the reader as a partner in a dialogue.

So, first of all: what are the most common, underlying and non-situational causes of our psychological distress and potential mental illness? Figuratively speaking, one of them lies in the "horizontal", the other - in the "vertical" dimension of being, while the person himself, with his conscious and unconscious difficulties and contradictions, is constantly at the point of their intersection.

Trouble "horizontally" is rooted in the fact that our conscious "I", standing out at the beginning of life from the primary undivided wholeness, necessarily opposes itself to the surrounding world as a kind of "not me" and, in the conditions of modern rationalized culture, "hardens" in this natural, but one-sided opposition; “encloses” its territory, as if enclosing itself in a transparent, but impenetrable psychological shell of alienation from the world, as if initially external and alien to it. It excommunicates itself from participation in the universal being.

Both intellectually and emotionally, a person forms an image of a beginningless and endless world, living according to its own, purely objective natural and social laws and indifferent to its fleeting existence. The world of impersonal, cause-and-effect relationships that determine a person, to which it is possible only temporarily to adapt. In this regard, theorists reflect on the “ultimate atomization of the consciousness of a modern individual” or (for example, psychologist S.L. Rubinshtein) say that in such a world there is no place for a person as such; the image of the “desert of the world” is born in poets, which (let us remember for later!) Creativity helps to pass through.

Of course, not every person, and even more so a child, will indulge in such reflection. But when a person’s unconscious memory of his own integrity and universal nature, of the original ontological unity with the world, his need to make sure that “I am not alone in the desert of the world” (O. Mandelstam) do not receive a response and confirmation, this creates a permanent common basis for psychological distress irreducible to specific everyday problems and situations.

archaic, but effective form the remarkable ethnographer W. Turner described overcoming, more precisely, preventing this disease as a cyclic regulated change of two modes of existence traditional society, which he defined as “structure” and “communitas” (i.e. community, belonging (10). Most of his life, each member of a strictly hierarchized and structured society stays in his age, gender, “professional” cell and acts in strict accordance with a system of social expectations, but in certain periods this structure is abolished for a short time, and everyone is ritually immersed in the direct experience of unity, embracing other people, nature, and the world as a whole. Having touched the single fundamental principle of being, people can return to everyday functioning in their dismembered social structure without a threat to mental health.

Obviously, in other historical and cultural conditions, the phenomenon of communitas in this form is not reproducible, but it has many analogues: from the culture of carnival to the traditions of choral singing, from ancient mysteries to participation in religious sacraments (though, in this case, the “vertical » measurement of the problem under discussion, which will be discussed below). But now it is important to emphasize something else: a person, without realizing it, seeks involvement in something “greater than himself”. And the absence of such experience - positive, socially approved - turns into absurd, sometimes destructive and pathological breakthroughs of the blocked need of the "atomized individual" to break out of the "flags" of his separateness and join a certain "we". (Recall the impact on listeners of some directions contemporary music, about behavior football fans and about many much darker manifestations of crowd psychology, and on the other hand, about depression and suicide on the basis of psychological loneliness.)

What kind of therapeutic or, better to say, preventive value may have experience in this matter of artistic creativity?

The fact is that the basis of its very possibility is not individual sensory or any other abilities associated with the implementation of activities in one or another form of art, but a special holistic attitude of a person to the world and to himself in the world, which is highly developed among artists. , but potentially characteristic of every person and is especially successfully updated in childhood. The psychological content of this aesthetic relationship has been repeatedly described by representatives of different types art, different eras and peoples. And its main feature is precisely that in the aesthetic experience the invisible barrier disappears, isolating the self-closed “I” from the rest of the world, and a person directly and consciously experiences his ontological unity with the object of the aesthetic relationship and even with the world as a whole. Then, in a special way, the unique sensual appearance of things is revealed to him: their “external form” turns out to be a transparent bearer of the soul, a direct expression of the inner life, related and understandable to man. That is why he feels himself, at least for a short time, involved in the existence of the whole world and its eternity.

“I aspired,” he says in his autobiographical work V. Goethe, look with love at what is happening outside and expose yourself to the influence of all beings, each in his own way, starting with a human being and further - down the line - to the extent that they were comprehensible to me. Hence arose a wonderful kinship with individual natural phenomena, an inner consonance with it, participation in the choir of an all-encompassing whole ”(11, p. 456)

“And only because we are related to the whole world,” says our great writer and thinker M.M. Prishvin, we restore the common connection with the power of kindred attention and discover our personal in people of a different way of life, even in animals, even plants, even in things ”(12, p. 7). Artists who lived in different times and often knowing nothing about each other, testify that only on the basis of such an experience can a true work of art be born.

So the aesthetic experience, which - we emphasize! - in the appropriate pedagogical conditions can be acquired by every child, helps to heal the ontological crack and restore the unity of a person with the world “horizontally”. In any case, to give a person an experience of the possibility, the reality of this unity. And such an experience, even if it is rare, not fully reflected, not retained in consciousness, will certainly remain on the unconscious, or rather, on the superconscious level, and will constantly support a person in his arbitrarily complex relationship with the outside world.

Note: we needed to mention the superconsciousness, and this means that we have come to the point beyond which our thoughts move to the “vertical” plane of the issue under discussion.

The ultimate expression of the aesthetic experience that has been discussed so far can be recognized as the well-known line of F.I. Tyutcheva: "Everything is in me, and I am in everything! .." It is easy to understand that these words express not only a certain special attitude towards the world, but rather, with the world, "horizontally" spread around us. Here one can guess a different level of self-consciousness and self-awareness of a person, the presence of a different, larger “I”, commensurate with “everything”, capable of accommodating “everything”, and thanks to this, the reason for our internal trouble, lying in the “vertical” dimension of being, is clearly drawn.

In religious and philosophical literature, in the works of many psychologists, in the spiritual and practical experience of people from different times and peoples, as well as in the experience of self-observation of numerous creatively gifted people, we find evidence that, along with the empirical "I" of our everyday self-consciousness, there really exists something else, “higher self”, which carries in itself the fullness of possibilities, which we partially actualize in the space-time of earthly life and in a limited socio-cultural environment. Not being able to discuss this topic in detail within the framework of this article, I will only note that without such an assumption it is impossible to speak seriously about creativity, such phenomena as self-education, self-improvement, etc. become inexplicable.

This supreme "instance" of the individual human being are called differently: the higher "I" - in contrast to the everyday, "true" - in contrast to the illusory and changeable, "eternal" - in contrast to the mortal, transient, "free" - in contrast to the determined by the totality of biosocial or any or other "objective" factors, "spiritual" "I" (13), "creative" I "(14), etc.

Coming into contact with this “I” of superconsciousness on the paths of spiritual self-improvement, or in the process of creativity in one area or another, or receiving it as if “for free” in the flow of everyday life, a person feels himself with previously unknown distinctness, intensity, certainty and completeness. . Of course, such peaks, like the experiences of unity with the world that we spoke about earlier, cannot become our permanent state, but the absence or deep oblivion of such an experience - this, figuratively speaking, “vertical gap” - becomes the cause of deep internal disorder. a person that cannot be eliminated by any changes in his external life or by private recommendations of a consultant psychologist that do not affect the essence of the matter.

The philosopher will define this gap as "a discrepancy between the essence and existence of man"; a humanist psychologist - as a lack of self-actualization, as a "deprivation of higher needs" (A. Maslow); the psychotherapist can reasonably see in him the reason for the loss of the meaning of life - the root of all diseases (V. Frankl). In any case, we are talking about the fact that not only are we not actually "ourselves", which, perhaps, is not achievable in its entirety - we live on the far periphery of ourselves, not trying to restore the lost connection with our own true "I ' approach him. We live not only in an alien world, but essentially alien to ourselves.

And again the same question arises: how can an early (or even not only early) experience of artistic creation help a person in this situation?

Let's go back a little. In an aesthetic experience, a person, sometimes unexpectedly for himself, crosses the usual boundaries of his “ego”, lives a common life with a big world, and this creates favorable ground for a kind of revelation about himself, for a “meeting” with a big I, commensurate with this the world. A man, in the words of the poet Walt Whitman, suddenly discovers with joy that he is bigger and better than he thought, that he does not fit "between shoes and a hat" ...

Such "meetings" are experienced and recorded in the memories of many masters of art. Then they have ideas that are clearly beyond their limits. ordinary opportunities, and yet they materialize. In the process of creating or performing a work, a person feels like a “tool” in the hand of “someone” much more powerful and perspicacious, and sometimes perceives the result in a detached way, as something to which he has no direct relationship. Such self-reports are usually characterized by a confidence-inspiring sobriety, lack of affectation. The level of awareness of this experience is different - from experiencing an emotional and energetic upsurge, creative daring, transcending one's own boundaries to conscious, almost at the level of methodology, attracting the "creative self" to cooperation - as, for example, in the practice of the great Russian actor M. Chekhov (15) . I will not try to interpret these psychological phenomena in any way, the very existence of which is beyond doubt. Something else is important for us now: artistic and creative experience (and, probably, any truly creative experience) is, to a certain extent, the experience of “being oneself”. It allows you to overcome, at least for a while, the “vertical gap”: to experience the moment of unity between the everyday and the higher, creative self; at least - to remember and experience the very fact of its existence.

Let me note: speaking of creativity, I do not mean “the creation of something new”, it is only a consequence, an external evidence of the creative process, moreover, the evidence is not always intelligible and indisputable. By creativity, I mean, first of all, the manifestation of the “internal activity of the soul” (16), which is realized as a free (not determined from the outside) generation and embodiment of one’s own plan in a particular area of ​​life and culture.

There is a lot of evidence, from theological to experimental and pedagogical, confirming that a person - every person - is a creator by nature; the need to create general sense the words “to live from within outwards” (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh) most intimately characterizes the very essence of man. And the fulfillment of this need necessary condition mental health, and its blocking, which is so characteristic, in particular, for modern general education, is a source of implicit but serious danger to the human psyche. As the modern researcher V. Bazarny says, a person is either creative or sick.

Returning to the figurative and symbolic coordinates of our presentation, we can say that true creativity is born just at the crosshairs of the horizontal and vertical axes - the restored relationship of a person with himself and with the world. When a person sees a relative to him the world through the eyes of the higher, creative self and realizes the possibilities of the creative self in the images, language, materiality of the surrounding world. This harmony is embodied in every true work of art(no matter how complex or tragic its specific content) and directly affects the viewer, reader or listener, awakening in him the memory, albeit unclear, of the original unity with the world and the great “inner man” in himself.

This is where the question naturally arises. It is obvious that creativity and artistic creation are by no means synonyms, that creative self-realization is possible in all areas of human activity and in all its relationships with the world; why do we so emphasize the importance of art and artistic creativity for the mental health of a person, and a growing person - especially?

It is, first of all, about the age priority of art. It is in this area that almost all children of preschool, primary school, early adolescence can, under favorable pedagogical conditions, acquire an emotionally positive and successful experience of creativity as such, the generation and implementation of their own ideas.

Further. Is there another area of ​​culture in which children of 9, 7, 4 years old can create something that society and the highest professional elite recognize as valuable? Valuable not because a child made it, but valuable as an independent fact of culture? And in art, this is exactly the case: for more than a hundred years, outstanding masters of all types of art have seen children as their junior colleagues, capable of creating aesthetic values, and are not even averse to learning something from them. One more thing. A juvenile (but still not 4 or 7-year-old!) physicist or mathematician does in principle the same thing as an adult scientist, only many years earlier: there is no “child science”. A children's art exists: being artistically valuable, the work of the child at the same time bears a pronounced age mark, easily recognizable and inseparable from artistic value works. This speaks, from my point of view, of the deep "natural conformity" of artistic creativity: the child acquires a full-fledged creative experience in the most appropriate age forms for him.

True, there are phenomena that are difficult to explain when a child creates a text or drawing that does not bear any age mark either in an emotionally meaningful sense, or even in terms of the perfection of the embodiment of the idea, and could belong to an adult artist. I am not ready to discuss in detail and explain this amazing phenomenon - I will only remind you that even an adult artist can be “more than himself” in his work. And it’s better to say - it happens “by itself”.

A. Melik-Pashaev

Literature

1. Ideas of aesthetic education. Anthology in 2 volumes. T.1, M.: "Art", 1973
2. Aristotle. Poetics. (On the art of poetry.) M .: State publishing house fiction, 1957
3. Krasny Yu.E. ART is always therapy. M.: Publishing house OOO Interregional Center for Management and Political Consulting, 2006
4. Toropova A.V. Development of the integrity of the personality through the sensual filling of the musical consciousness of the child. / Methodology of Pedagogy of Music Education ( scientific school E.B. Abdullina). - M., MSGU, 2007. S. 167-180.
5. Kirnarskaya D.K. Musical ability. M .: Talents-XX1 century, 2004
6. Lazarev M. New paradigm of education. Art at school, №3, 2011
7. Sitnova E.N. The influence of art and aesthetic education on personality development in adolescence and youth. Abstract Candidate diss., M., 2005
8. Kashekova I. Numbers and only numbers. Art at school, №4, 2007
9. Bakhtin M.M. Aesthetics of verbal creativity. M .: Art, 1979
10. Turner, W. Symbol and ritual. M .: Science, 1983
11. Goethe, V. Poetry and truth. Collected works, vol. 3. Publishing house of fiction, 1976
12. Prishvin M.M. The power of kindred attention. M .: Art at school, M., 1996
13. Florenskaya T.A. Dialogue in practical psychology. M.:, 1991
14. Melik-Pashaev A.A. The world of the artist. Moscow: Progress-tradition, 2000
15. Chekhov M.A. Literary heritage in 2 volumes. M.: Art, 1995
16. Zenkovsky V.V. The problem of mental causality. Kyiv, 1914

The formation of a creative personality is one of the important tasks of pedagogical theory and practice at the present stage. Its solution should begin already in preschool childhood. The most effective means for this is the visual activity of children in a preschool institution.

In the process of drawing, modeling, application, the child experiences a variety of feelings: he rejoices at the beautiful image that he created himself, upset if something does not work out. But the most important thing: by creating an image, the child acquires various knowledge; his ideas about the environment are clarified and deepened; in the process of work, he begins to comprehend the qualities of objects, memorize them characteristics and details, to master fine skills and abilities, learns to use them consciously. Even Aristotle noted: drawing contributes to the versatile development of the child. Prominent teachers of the past - Ya. A. Komensky, I. G. Pestalozzi, F. Froebel - and many domestic researchers wrote about this. Their works testify: drawing and other types of artistic activity create the basis for full-fledged meaningful communication between children and with adults; perform a therapeutic function, distracting children from sad, sad events, relieve nervous tension, fears, cause a joyful, high spirits, provide a positive emotional condition. That is why it is so important to include widely pedagogical process a variety of artistic and creative activities. Here, every child can express himself most fully without any pressure from an adult.

The management of visual activity requires the educator to know what creativity is in general, and especially children's, knowledge of its specifics, the ability to subtly, tactfully, supporting the initiative and independence of the child, contribute to the acquisition of the necessary skills and abilities and the development of creative potential. The well-known researcher A. Lilov expressed his understanding of creativity as follows: "... creativity has its own general, qualitatively new features and characteristics that define it, some of which have already been quite convincingly disclosed by theory. These general regular moments are as follows:
Creativity is a social phenomenon
- its deep social entity lies in the fact that it creates socially necessary and socially useful values, satisfies social needs, and especially in the fact that it is the highest concentration of the transforming role of a conscious social subject (class, people, society) in its interaction with objective reality.

Another researcher, V. G. Zlotnikov, points out: artistic creativity characterizes the continuous unity of cognition and imagination, practical activity and mental processes, it is a specific spiritual and practical activity, which results in a special material product - a work of art.

What is child art before school age? Domestic teachers and psychologists consider creativity as the creation by a person of objectively and subjectively new things. It is the subjective novelty that constitutes the result. creative activity children of preschool and primary school age. By drawing, cutting and pasting, a preschool child creates a subjectively new thing for himself. The product of his creativity has no universal novelty and value. But its subjective value is significant.

The visual activity of children, as a prototype of adult activity, contains the socio-historical experience of generations. It is known that this experience has been implemented and materialized in the tools and products of activity, as well as in the methods of activity developed by socio-historical practice. A child cannot learn this experience without the help of an adult. It is the adult who is the bearer of this experience and its transmitter. By assimilating this experience, the child develops. At the same time, the visual activity itself, as a typically childish one, including drawing, modeling, and appliqué, contributes to the versatile development of the child.

How do well-known domestic scientists define children's creativity? How is its significance determined for the formation of a child's personality?

Teacher V.N. Shatskaya believes that in the conditions of general aesthetic education, children's artistic creativity is rather considered as a method of the most perfect mastery of a certain kind art and the formation of an aesthetically developed personality than as the creation of objective artistic values.

Researcher of children's creativity E.A. Flerina evaluates it as a child's conscious reflection of the surrounding reality in drawing, modeling, construction, a reflection that is built on the work of the imagination, displaying one's observations, as well as impressions received through a word, a picture and other forms of art. The child does not passively copy the environment, but reworks it in connection with the accumulated experience, attitude towards the depicted.

A. A. Volkova states: “The upbringing of creativity is a versatile and complex effect on a child. The mind (knowledge, thinking, imagination), character (courage, perseverance), feeling (love for beauty, passion for image, thought) take part in the creative activity of adults. We must educate the same aspects of the personality in the child in order to more successfully develop creativity in him. To enrich the mind of the child with various ideas, some knowledge means to give abundant food for creativity. To teach to look closely, to be observant means to make ideas clear, more complete. This will help children to more vividly reproduce what they see in their work. "

I. Ya. Lerner defines the features of a child’s creative activity as follows:
independent transfer of previously acquired knowledge to a new situation;
vision of a new function of an object (object);
vision of the problem in a standard situation;
vision of the structure of the object;
ability to alternative solutions;
combining previously known methods of activity with new ones.

I. Ya. Lerner argues: creativity can be taught, but this teaching is special, it is not the same as knowledge and skills are usually taught.

In the correctness of this idea, we were convinced in our own practice. However, we note: independent transfer of previously acquired knowledge to a new situation (the first feature according to Lerner) in children can manifest itself if they learn to perceive objects, objects of reality, learn to distinguish their forms, including in this process the movement of both hands along the contour of the object. (In other words, as we circle an object, examining it, we draw - with pencils, a brush, felt-tip pens.) Only then will children be able to use this method on their own, only then will they gradually acquire the freedom to depict any objects, even those that do not have a clearly fixed shape, for example, clouds, puddles, floating ice floes, unmelted snow.

The second feature according to Lerner - the vision of a new function of an object (object) - manifests itself when the child begins to use substitute objects, for example, turns cut narrow and wide strips into parts of objects or objects; plays with spoons, imagining that he is playing in an orchestra. This ability to isolate in the process of perception the form, the parts that we form in children, leads them to a vision of the structure of the object, mastering the ways of its transmission in drawing, modeling, and appliqué. That is why we recommend in creative classes to include in the work plan the topic "To teach how to create images of animals, the shape and structure of which are mastered."

Introducing children to works of art ( art, literature, music), we thereby introduce them into the world of standards of beauty, i.e. we put into practice those goals and objectives that are mentioned above - to an understanding of the expressiveness of means and figurative solution, variety of colors and compositional construction. Knowing, for example, the secrets of Dymkovo painting, the child undoubtedly uses them, creating images of fabulous animals, birds; comprehends the qualities of the depicted, remembered characteristic features.

What characterizes creativity? B. M. Teplov writes in this regard: "The main condition that must be ensured in children's creativity is sincerity. Without it, all other virtues lose their meaning."

This condition, naturally, is satisfied by the creativity "which arises in the child independently, based on an internal need, without any deliberate pedagogical stimulation." But systematic pedagogical work, according to the scientist, cannot be built on the basis of independently emerging creativity, which is not observed in many children, although these same children, when they are organized in artistic activities, sometimes show extraordinary creative abilities.

Thus, a pedagogical problem arises - the search for such incentives for creativity that would give rise in the child to a genuine, effective desire to "compose." Such an incentive was found by Leo Tolstoy. Starting to teach peasant children, the great Russian writer already understood how significant the task of "developing children's creativity" was; as one of the possible solutions, he offered children joint compositions (see the article "Who should learn to write from whom?"). So, what is the essence of involving children in artistic creativity, according to Leo Tolstoy? Show not only the product, but also the very process of creativity, writing, drawing, etc. in order to see with your own eyes how "it is done." Then, as E. I. Ignatiev, a domestic researcher in the psychology of children's creativity, writes, the child "from a simple enumeration of individual details in a drawing passes to an accurate transfer of the features of the depicted object. At the same time, the role of the word in visual activity changes, the word increasingly acquires the meaning of a regulator that directs the image process that controls the techniques and methods of the image".

In the process of drawing, modeling, the child experiences a variety of feelings; as we have already noted, he rejoices at a beautiful image, gets upset if something does not work out, tries to achieve a satisfying result or, conversely, gets lost, gives up, refuses to study (in this case, a sensitive, attentive attitude of the teacher is needed, his help). Working on the image, he acquires knowledge, clarifies and deepens his ideas about the environment. The child not only acquires visual skills and abilities that are new to him, expanding his creative possibilities, but also learns to use them consciously. A very significant factor in terms of mental development. After all, each child, creating an image of an object, conveys the plot, includes his feelings, understanding of how it should look. This is the essence of child fine arts, which manifests itself not only when the child independently comes up with the theme of his drawing, modeling, application, but also when he creates an image on the instructions of the teacher, determining the composition, color scheme and other expressive means, making interesting additions, etc.
Analysis of the provisions on children's creativity of famous domestic scientists - G. V. Latunskaya, V. S. Kuzin, P. P. Pidkasistoy, I. Ya. Lerner, N. P. Sakulina, B. M. Teplov, E. A. Flerina - and our many years of research allow us to formulate its working definition. Under the artistic creativity of preschool children, we mean the creation of a subjectively new (significant for the child, first of all) product (drawing, modeling, story, dance, song, game); creation (invention) to the known previously unused details that characterize the created image in a new way (in a drawing, story, etc.), different options images, situations, movements, one's beginning, end, new actions, characters' characteristics, etc.; the use of previously learned ways of depicting or means of expression in a new situation (for depicting objects of a familiar shape - on the basis of mastering facial expressions, gestures, voice variations, etc.); showing initiative in everything.

By creativity, we will understand the very process of creating images of a fairy tale, a story, dramatization games in drawing, etc., the search for ways, ways to solve a problem, visual, playful, musical, in the process of activity.

From our understanding of artistic creativity, it is obvious that in order to develop creativity, children need certain knowledge, skills and abilities, methods of activity that they themselves, without the help of adults, cannot master. In other words: we are talking about purposeful learning, the development of rich artistic experience.

For baby ( junior groups) creativity in creating an image can manifest itself in a change in the size of objects. Let me explain this idea: lesson in progress, children sculpt apples, and if someone, having completed the task, decides to make a smaller or larger apple, or a different color (yellow, green), for him this is already a creative decision. The manifestation of creativity younger preschoolers- these are some additions to modeling, drawing, say, a stick - a petiole.

As skills are mastered (already in older groups), the creative solution becomes more complicated. In drawings, modeling, applications appear fantastic images, fairy-tale heroes, palaces, magical nature, outer space with flying ships and even astronauts working in orbit. And in this situation positive attitude teacher to the initiative and creativity of the child is an important incentive for the development of his creativity. The teacher notes and encourages the creative discoveries of children, opens an exhibition of children's creativity in the group, in the hall, lobby, draws up the institution with the work of pupils.

In the creative activity of the child, three main stages should be distinguished, each of which, in turn, can be detailed and requires specific methods and techniques of guidance from the teacher.

The first is the emergence, development, awareness and design of the idea. The theme of the upcoming image can be determined by the child himself or proposed by the teacher (its specific decision is determined only by the child himself). The younger the child, the more situational and unstable is his intention. Our research shows that initially three-year-old children can realize their plans only in 30-40 percent of cases. The rest basically change the idea and, as a rule, name what they want to draw, then create something completely different. Sometimes the idea changes several times. Only by the end of the year, and even then, provided that classes are conducted systematically (in 70-80 percent of cases), the idea and implementation of the children begin to coincide. What is the reason? On the one hand, in the situational nature of the child's thinking: at first he wanted to draw one object, suddenly another one comes into his field of vision, which seems to him more interesting. On the other hand, when naming the object of the image, the child, having still very little experience in activity, does not always correlate what was conceived with his own ideas. pictorial possibilities. Therefore, taking a pencil or brush in hand and realizing his inability, he abandons the original plan. The older the children, the richer their experience in visual activity, the more stable their concept becomes.

The second stage is the process of creating an image. The topic of the task not only does not deprive the child of the opportunity to show creativity, but also directs his imagination, of course, if the teacher does not regulate the decision. Significantly greater opportunities arise when a child creates an image according to his own plan, when the teacher only sets the direction for choosing a theme, the content of the image. Activities at this stage require the child to be able to master the ways of depiction, expressive means specific to drawing, modeling, and appliqué.

The third stage - the analysis of the results - is closely related to the two previous ones - this is their logical continuation and completion. Viewing and analysis of what was created by children is carried out at their maximum activity, which allows you to more fully comprehend the result. own activities. At the end of the lesson, everything created by the children is displayed on a special stand, i.e. each child is given the opportunity to see the work of the whole group, to mark, justifying their choice, those that they liked the most. The tactful, guiding questions of the teacher will allow children to see the creative finds of their comrades, the original and expressive solution of the topic.
A detailed analysis of children's drawings, modeling or appliqué is optional for each lesson. This is determined by the feature and purpose created images. But here's what is important: the discussion of the work, their analysis, the teacher conducts each time in a new way. So, if the children made Christmas decorations, then at the end of the lesson all the toys are hung on a furry beauty. If you created a collective composition, then at the end of the work, the teacher pays attention to general form pictures and invites you to think about whether it is possible to supplement the panorama, make it richer, and therefore more interesting. If the children decorated the doll's dress, then everything best work"show up in the store" so that the doll or several dolls can "choose" what they like.

Experts distinguish three groups of means, the purpose of which is to increase the level of aesthetic education: art in all forms, the surrounding life, including nature, artistic and creative activity. Thanks to these interconnected means, the child is actively involved in the experience of the creative activity of adults. However effective leadership possible, provided that the teacher knows and takes into account those mental processes that underlie children's creativity, and, most importantly, systematically develops them.

What mental processes are we talking about? Of all the means of aesthetic education, all types of artistic activity, we single out general groups that form the basis of creativity.

1. Perception of objects and phenomena of reality and their properties, which has individual differences. It is known that in their drawings, modeling, applications, children reflect the impressions received from the world around them. This means that they have a variety of impressions about this world. Ideas about objects and phenomena are formed on the basis of their perception. Therefore, the most important condition for creativity is to develop children's perception (visual, tactile, kinesthetic), to form a diverse sensory experience.

How should education be carried out so that children have the necessary knowledge and ideas? Psychologists note: syncretism, fusion and lack of distinctness of images of perception are characteristic of children of primary preschool age. To depict an object or phenomenon, the child must represent all its basic properties and convey them in such a way that the image is recognizable. For little artist this is very significant.

The teacher forms knowledge and ideas about the environment purposefully. These are both special observations and examination of the subject during didactic games. The teacher directs the child's perception to certain properties and qualities of objects (phenomena). After all, not all preschoolers come to kindergarten having a rich experience of perceiving the environment - figurative, aesthetically colored, emotionally positive. For the majority, it is limited to fragmentation, one-sidedness, and often simply poverty. To develop aesthetic perception in children, the teacher must himself have the ability of aesthetic vision. Even V. A. Sukhomlinsky emphasized: "You cannot be a teacher without mastering a subtle emotional and aesthetic vision of the world."

Children should not just look at an object, recognize and highlight its properties: shape, structure, color, etc. They should see its artistic merits that are to be depicted. Not everyone is able to independently determine the beauty of an object. The teacher shows them. Otherwise, the concept of "beautiful" will not acquire a specific meaning in the eyes of the pupil, it will remain formal. But in order for him to understand how beautiful this or that object, this or that phenomenon, the teacher himself, we repeat, must feel, see the beauty in life. He develops this quality in himself and children constantly.

How to do it? Day after day, watch with children the phenomena of nature - how the buds swell on trees, bushes, how they gradually bloom, covering the tree with foliage. And how diverse are the gray clouds driven by the wind, how quickly their shape, position, color change! Pay attention to the beauty of the movement of the clouds, the change in their shape. Watch how beautifully the sky and surrounding objects are illuminated by the rays of the setting sun.

Such observations can be carried out with different objects. The ability to contemplate beauty, to enjoy it is very important for the development of children's creativity. It is not for nothing that in Japan, where the culture of aesthetic perception is so high, teachers develop observation skills in children, the ability to listen, peer into the environment - to catch the difference in the noise of rain, to see and hear how heavy drops are loudly knocking on the glass, how joyfully the suddenly flown summer "mushroom" rings " rain.

Objects for observations are found daily. Their goal is to expand children's ideas about the world, its variability and beauty. The Russian language is so rich in epithets, comparisons, metaphors, poetic lines! N. P. Sakulina drew attention to this at one time.

L. S. Vygotsky, speaking about the role of training, emphasized that training leads development. At the same time, he paid attention: “Education can give more in development than what is contained in its immediate results. Applied to one point in the sphere of children's thought, it modifies and rebuilds many other points. It can have distant, but not only immediate consequences.

It is precisely such a long-term result that we can talk about when it comes to the formation of figurative representations in children in the process of teaching visual activity. The statement is not accidental. Proof of this is the work of E. A. Bugrimenko, A. L. Venger, K. N. Polivanova, E. Yu. Sutkova, the theme of which is the preparation of children for school, the diagnosis of mental development and its correction. The authors note: "An insufficient level of development of figurative representations is one of the frequent causes of learning difficulties not only at the age of six, but also much later (up to the senior classes). At the same time, the period of their most intensive formation falls on preschool and the beginning of primary school age Therefore, if a child entering school has problems, then they should be "compensated" as soon as possible with visual and constructive activities - in their free time, they should stimulate drawing, modeling, appliqué, and construction."

When characterizing a child's thinking, psychologists usually distinguish stages: visual-effective, visual-figurative, logical. The visual-figurative is based on visual representations and their transformation as a means of solving a mental problem. It is known that the entry into a new stage of thinking does not mean the elimination of its previous stage. It is preserved in the child, helps in the development of thinking new stage, forms the basis for the formation of a variety of activities and abilities. Moreover, experts believe that this form of thinking is necessary not only for children's creativity, but also for the creativity of a person of any profession. That is why it is so important to develop creative thinking, as well as imagination, a positive emotional attitude, mastery of image methods, expressive means of drawing, modeling, appliqué.

Magazine " preschool education" № 2, 2005

The author of this text is Leonid Aleksandrovich Tishkov — Russian artist- cartoonist. The text proposed for analysis is the author's reflections on whether there are boundaries for real art.

The author is convinced that thanks to creativity one can find meaning and support in life. He believes that artistic creativity is not just a way of self-expression. Sometimes it can become a saving straw, clinging to which a person can go through many and survive. Inner peace, fantasizing, creativity saved many lives in a difficult time for them. Leonid Tishkov is sure that art liberates, releases, can give a person a sense of inner freedom, even if in reality he is deprived of it.

I think that Leonid Tishkov is right. Art helps to survive, helps people to comprehend the situation, to look at things correctly, sometimes not even suspecting its true power. Many examples can be cited to support this idea.

Stalingrad. There are street fights. One side of the street is occupied by our fighters, the other by the Nazis. The fire does not stop day or night. But one day, in the evening, a sergeant comes out of the door of the house. He heads to the middle of the crossroads, where among the ruins one can see a grand piano covered with brick dust, but miraculously preserved. Our soldiers look at the sergeant with bewilderment and anxiety. At any second, everything can end ... They look with bewilderment from the other side.

The sergeant makes his way to the piano, lifts the lid and begins to play. Not a single shot breaks the silence. It all seems like some incredible magic, some kind of miracle. Like from an old peaceful life the soldiers heard the sounds of "Waltz" by Fryderyk Chopin. Everyone listens spellbound. The machines were silent.

It turns out that the power of music is greater than the power of war. But what is this power? She is a wonderful symbol of peace and life. This is her strength. Even for a while, but beautiful music stopped the battle. So, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was right when he said that beauty would save the world.

Art enriches spiritual world a person and thereby raises him to another higher level. D. Likhachev said about: “It illuminates and at the same time sanctifies a person’s life. It makes him kinder, therefore, happier.”

Even in the most hopeless times, thanks to art, hope returns to a person. This is the purpose and power of art.

Valeria Gumovskaya©

Write an essay based on the text you read.

Formulate one of the problems posed by the author of the text.

Comment on the formulated problem. Include in the comment two illustration examples from the read text that you think are important for understanding the problem in the source text (avoid over-quoting). Explain the meaning of each example and indicate the semantic relationship between them.

The volume of the essay is at least 150 words.

A work written without relying on the text read (not on this text) is not evaluated. If the essay is a paraphrase or a complete rewrite original text without any comments, then such work is rated 0 points.

Write an essay carefully, legible handwriting.

(1) Artistic creativity, from my point of view, is not just a way of self-expression. (2) Sometimes it can become a saving straw, clinging to which a person can go through many difficult trials and survive. (3) And here is one of the striking examples.

(4) An amazing woman, amateur artist Evfrosinya Antonovna Kersnovskaya spent many years in the Stalinist camp, after which she began to sketch her whole life from the very beginning: her childhood in Bessarabia, how she was arrested in Romania, how she was exiled to Siberia. (5) For many years she depicted life, details and commented on her drawings.

(6) Here is what she writes to her mother:

(7) “I drew them for you, thinking about you ... (8) I started drawing there, in Norilsk, immediately after I left the camp. (9) There was still neither a mattress nor a sheet, there was not even a corner. (10) But I already dreamed of drawing something beautiful, reminiscent of the past - the past that

was inextricably linked with you, my dear! (11) And the only thing I could think of was to draw ... "

(12) And now, in pictures, Euphrosyne creates the story of her life, all her misadventures, in order to free herself from those difficult memories that surrounded her after leaving the twelve-year hell. (13) She drew with what she had to: with colored pencils, a pen, sometimes she tinted with watercolors.

(14) And these uncomplicated, but such detailed, truthful drawings amaze with their persuasiveness and inner freedom. (15) As many as twelve general notebooks were composed and drawn by her in the 60s of the last century. (16) In 1991 they came out as a separate book called "Rock Painting". (17) And to this day, looking at these drawings that were born so long ago, somewhere deep inside I feel how much art helped this amazing artist and just a noble woman to survive.

(18) Here is another story. (19) Artist Boris Sveshnikov also for a long time was in captivity. (20) His albums were drawn directly there, in captivity, but they were not about the camp, not about the life he lived then - they were fantastic. (21) He depicted some kind of fictional reality and extraordinary cities. (22) With a thin feather, the thinnest, almost transparent silver stroke, he created in his albums a parallel, incredibly mysterious, exciting life. (23) And subsequently these albums became evidence that his inner world, fantasy, creativity saved his life in this camp. (24) He survived thanks to creativity.

(25) Another extraordinary artist, Mikhail Sokolov, a contemporary of Sveshnikov, being imprisoned for his extravagant appearance, also tried to seek freedom and salvation in his work. (26) He drew with colored pencils, and sometimes with pencil stubs, small pictures three by three centimeters or five by five centimeters and hid under his pillow.

(27) And these little fantastic drawings by Sokolov, in my opinion, are in some sense grander than some huge paintings written by another artist in a bright and comfortable workshop.

(28) As you can see, you can depict reality, or you can depict fantasy. (29) In both cases, what you transfer from your head, from your soul, from your heart, from memory to paper, frees you, sets you free, even if there are prison bars around. (30) Therefore, the role of art is truly great. (31) And it doesn’t matter what and how you do it: creativity knows no boundaries, does not require special tools. (32) It, sincere and truthful, simply lives in a person, looks for a way out and is always ready to selflessly help him.

(according to L.A. Tishkov*)

*Leonid Alexandrovich Tishkov (born in 1953) is a Russian cartoonist, also works in the field of book graphics.

Explanation.

Approximate range of problems:

1. The problem of the significance of artistic creativity in the life of the artist himself. (What is the benefit of the saving power of artistic creativity? Can artistic creativity help a person survive, save a person?)

2. The problem of understanding such a phenomenon. as a work of art. (What is artistic creativity? Are there limits to creativity? Where is artistic creativity born?)

3. The problem of the real and the fantastic in art. (What should artistic creativity be based on: reality or fantasy?)

1. Artistic creativity is not just a way of self-expression, it can bring great benefits: it spiritually frees a person, even if he is in prison. helps to get rid of bad memories. overcome difficulties, immerses a person in a different reality.

2. Artistic creativity is that. what a person transfers from his head, from his soul, from his heart to paper. Creativity knows no boundaries, does not require special tools. True creativity can be born both in the artist's bright workshop and on a tiny piece of paper.

3. For artistic creation, it does not matter whether a person depicts reality or fantasy. It remains creative. great power which is truly limitless.

ARTISTIC CREATIVITY AS A WAY TO IMPROVE THINKING

General characteristics of the concept of "thinking"

General characteristics of the concept of "artistic creativity"

Psychological mechanisms of artistic creativity, connection between artistic creativity and thinking

1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CONCEPT "THINKING"

Life constantly poses acute and urgent tasks and problems for a person. The emergence of such problems, difficulties, surprises means that in the reality around us there is still a lot of unknown, incomprehensible, unforeseen, hidden, requiring an ever deeper knowledge of the world, the discovery of more and more new processes, properties and relationships of people and things in it. The universe is infinite, and the process of its cognition is infinite. Thinking is always directed to these boundless depths of the unknown, the new. Each person makes many discoveries in his life (it does not matter that these discoveries are small, only for himself, and not for humanity).

Thinking - this is a socially conditioned, inextricably linked with speech mental process of searching for and discovering something essentially new, a process of indirect and generalized reflection of reality in the course of its analysis and synthesis. Thinking arises on the basis of practical activity from sensory cognition and goes far beyond its limits.

Cognitive activity begins with sensations and perceptions. Any, even the most developed, thinking always retains a connection with sensory cognition, i.e. with sensations, perceptions and ideas. Thought activity receives all its material from only one source - from sensory cognition. Through sensations and perceptions, thinking is directly connected with the external world and is its reflection. The correctness (adequacy) of this reflection is continuously tested in the process of practical transformation of nature and society.

Ta sensual picture of the world, which our sensations and perceptions provide every day, is necessary, but not sufficient for its deep, comprehensive knowledge. In this sensual picture of reality directly observed by us, the most complex interactions of various objects, events, phenomena, etc., their causes and consequences, mutual transitions into each other are almost not dissected. It is simply impossible to unravel this tangle of dependencies and connections, which appears in our perception in all its colorfulness and immediacy, with the help of sensory knowledge alone. In perception, only a general, summary result of a person's interaction with a cognizable object is given. But in order to live and act, one must first of all know what external objects are in themselves, i.e. objectively, regardless of how they appear to a person, and in general, regardless of whether they are known or not.

Since, within the framework of sensory cognition alone, it is impossible to completely dissect such a general, total, direct effect of the interaction of the subject with the object being known, a transition from sensations and perceptions to thinking is necessary. In the course of thinking, further, deeper knowledge of the external world is carried out. As a result, it is possible to dismember, unravel the most complex interdependencies between objects, events, and phenomena.

In the process of thinking, using the data of sensations, perceptions and ideas, a person at the same time goes beyond the limits of sensory knowledge, i.e. begins to cognize such phenomena of the external world, their properties and relations, which are not directly given at all in perceptions and therefore are not directly observable at all.

Practical-effective, visual-figurative and theoretical-abstract - interconnected types of thinking . In the process of historical development, the human intellect was initially formed in the course of practical activity.

Genetically, the earliest kind of thinking is practically - actionable thinking; actions with objects are of decisive importance in it.

On the basis of practical-effective manipulative thinking, there is visual-figurative thinking. It is characterized by operating visually in the mind. The highest level of thinking is abstract, abstract thinking. But here, too, thinking retains its connection with practice.

The thinking of individuals is also divided into predominantly figurative(artistic) and abstract(theoretical). But in the process of life, one and the same person comes to the fore first one, then another type of thinking.

The structural unit of practical (operational) thinking is action; artistic - image; scientific - concept.

Depending on the depth of generalization, there are empirical And theoretical thinking. Empirical thinking gives primary generalizations based on experience. These generalizations are made at a low level of abstraction. Empirical consciousness is the lowest, elementary level of knowledge. Theoretical thinking reveals a universal relationship, explores the object of knowledge in the system of its necessary connections. Its result is the construction of theoretical models, the creation of theories, the generalization of experience, the disclosure of the patterns of development of various phenomena, the knowledge of which ensures the transformative activity of man. Theoretical thinking is inextricably linked with practice, but in its final results it has relative independence.

So, the information received by a person from the surrounding world allows a person to represent not only the external, but also the internal side of an object, to represent objects in the absence of them, to foresee their change in time, to rush with thought into boundless distances and the microcosm. All this is possible through the process of thinking. In psychology, thinking is understood as the process of an individual's cognitive activity, characterized by a generalized and indirect reflection of reality. Starting from sensations and perceptions, thinking, going beyond the limits of sensory experience, expands the boundaries of our knowledge by virtue of its nature, which allows us to indirectly (i.e., by inference) reveal what is not directly (i.e., by perception) not given. So, looking at the thermometer hanging from the outside of the window, we find out that it is quite cold outside. Seeing the strongly swaying treetops, we understand that the wind is outside.

Sensation and perception reflect separate aspects of phenomena, moments of reality in more or less random combinations. Thinking correlates the data of sensations and perceptions, compares, compares, distinguishes and reveals relationships. Through the disclosure of these relations between directly, sensually given properties of things and phenomena, thinking reveals new, not directly given abstract properties: revealing interconnections and comprehending reality in these interconnections. Thus, thinking more deeply cognizes the essence of the surrounding world, reflects being in its connections and relationships.

2. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CONCEPT

"ARTISTIC CREATIVITY"

Creativity is an attribute of human activity. It predetermined the emergence of man and human society, and underlies the further progress of material and spiritual production.

According to Leontiev A.A., creativity is not limited to the activity of creating new material and spiritual values, as his dictionary "Psychology" defines (in fairness, we note that this definition goes back to the definition of creativity by L.S. Vygotsky as "creating a new one" ). Such an understanding is correct only from the point of view of a “procedural” approach to creativity, which should rather be called “productive”. It is no coincidence that the same dictionary entry speaks of a product of creativity as “distinguished by novelty, originality, and uniqueness.” This "newness", however, can in no way be taken as the basis for a psychological understanding of creativity. Even if we talk about artistic creativity, such an understanding leaves aside a huge layer of so-called performance creativity - to define it creative nature through the originality of the final product seems to us a stretch.

Under the general name of creativity, its different types are combined: technical, artistic, pedagogical, ethical, etc. All these types are psychologically unequal, for example, technical and artistic creativity are correlated differently with theoretical thinking. But something unites them: it is the ability of a person to "act in uncertain situations."

The condition for such an ability is self-realization (self-determination) of the individual. According to Ukhtomsky A.A., from an activity point of view, such an ability is multilayered - in particular, it can manifest itself at the level of both a holistic personality (artistic creativity) and operational components of a productive or cognitive (educational) activity (solving so-called creative tasks ), at the level of the structure of orienting activity and the restructuring of the orienting basis of activity, and ultimately the image of the world (scientific creativity), etc. But in all cases we are dealing with an independent "construction" of a system of relations between individual and the objective and social world, of which this person is an integral part. The novelty here is not in an objectively new final product, but in the independent creation of a system of relationships with the world or in the transformation of the world (not necessarily “material”, rather social, the world of activity and relations: the world in its entirety should be presented not as an object at all, but as process) through their own activities.

Creativity is the highest form of activity and independent activity of a person and society. It contains an element of the new, involves original and productive activity, the ability to solve problem situations, productive imagination, combined with a critical attitude towards the achieved result. The scope of creativity covers actions from non-standard solution of a simple problem to the full realization of the unique potentials of an individual in a certain area.

Creation - This is a historically evolutionary form of human activity, expressed in various types of activities and leading to the development of personality. Through creativity are realized historical development and the link between generations. It continuously expands the possibilities of a person, creating conditions for conquering new heights.

A precondition for creative activity is the process of cognition, the accumulation of knowledge about the subject that is to be changed.

Creative activity - this is amateur activity, covering the change in reality and self-realization of the individual in the process of creating material and spiritual values, new more progressive forms of management, education, etc. and pushing the limits of human capabilities.

Creativity is based on the principle of activity, and more specifically, labor activity. The process of practical transformation of the surrounding world by a person, in principle, determines the formation of the person himself.

Creativity is an attribute of the activity of only the human race. The generic essence of a person, his most important attributive property, is objective activity, the essence of which is creativity. However, this attribute is not inherent in a person from birth. Creativity is not a gift of nature, but a property acquired through labor activity. It is transformative activity, inclusion in it that is a necessary condition for the development of the ability to be creative. The transforming activity of a person brings up in him the subject of creativity, instills in him the appropriate knowledge, skills, educates the will, makes him comprehensively developed, allows you to create qualitatively new levels of material and spiritual culture, i.e. create.

There are two interpretations artistic creativity :

epistemological - from ancient ideas about the soul as about wax, in which objects are imprinted, to the Leninist theory of reflection;

ontological - from ancient ideas about creativity as the soul's recollection of its eternal essence, from medieval and romantic ideas that God speaks through the mouth of a poet, that the artist is the medium of the Creator, to Berdyaev's concept, which attached fundamental existential significance to creativity.

Neither the ontological nor the epistemological component of creativity can be neglected. V. Solovyov saw in their relationship a condition of the creative process. This theoretical tradition should be based on. It is from these positions that the artistic image and its features should be considered.
Artistic image concrete and has the features of representation, but of a special kind: a representation enriched with mental activity. Representations are a transitional step between perception and concept, a generalization of the broadest layers of social practice. Representation contains both the meaning and the meaning of the phenomenon being mastered. In order for artistic performances to become the property of the audience, they must be objectified. The artistic image is the objectification of the system of artistic representations.

The conceptual beginning is also present in artistic thinking - sometimes in a hidden, and sometimes in an explicit form. The conceptual content of a work of art is made up of representations and ideas objectified in the image. Artistic thinking figuratively. It combines generality and concreteness with a personal form. Art recreates life in its entirety and thereby expands and deepens the real life experience of a person.

There is a hierarchy of value ranks that characterizes the degree of a person's predisposition to artistic creativity: ability - giftedness - talent - genius.

According to I.V. Goethe, the genius of an artist is determined by the power of perception of the world and the impact on humanity. The American psychologist D. Gilford notes the manifestation of six abilities of the artist in the process of creativity: fluency of thinking, analogies and contrasts, expressiveness, the ability to switch from one class of objects to another, adaptive flexibility or originality, the ability to give the art form the necessary outlines. Artistic talent presupposes keen attention to life, the ability to choose objects of attention, fix these impressions in memory, extract them from memory and include them in a rich system of associations and connections dictated by creative imagination.

Artistic activity in this or that form of art, in this or that period of life, many people are engaged in with greater or lesser success. However, only artistic ability ensures the creation of artistic values ​​of public interest. A person who is artistically gifted creates works that have sustainable significance for a given society for a significant period of its development. Talent generates artistic values ​​that have enduring national and sometimes even universal significance. A brilliant artist creates the highest human values ​​that are significant for all time.

3. PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF ARTISTIC

CREATIVITY, ARTISTIC CONNECTION

CREATIVITY AND THINKING

Along with the scientific knowledge of the world of ideas, the field of knowledge of human characters was actively developing, which ultimately led to the penetration into the world of human individuality. This was an area of ​​artistic and aesthetic creativity, which gave priority not so much to strict logic as to intuition, and therefore turned to the artistic modeling of a person more freely than logically based knowledge. The comprehension by aesthetics of artistic images created by the means of literature and art became the path that ultimately contributed to the formation of psychological science, which is so necessary for understanding culture in its phenomenological state and historical development.
Artistic activity plays an important role in the process of scientific self-knowledge. Due to the fact that it combines the world of reason and feelings, fertilized by the projective activity of the imagination, artistic creativity has the ability to take on the functions of scientific knowledge. This happens, as a rule, in periods when sociocultural experience is faced with the need to present the object of scientific study, but does not yet have the information necessary for a sufficiently complete scientific generalization.

Artistic activity, syncretic in nature, combines in the projective activity of the imagination the elements rational cognition and value orientation.

Artistic creativity begins with a heightened attention to the phenomena of the world and involves "rare impressions", the ability to keep them in memory and comprehend.

Memory is an important psychological factor in artistic creativity. With the artist, it is not mirrored, selective and creative.

The creative process is inconceivable without imagination, which allows the combination-creative reproduction of a chain of ideas and impressions stored in memory.

The imagination has many varieties: phantasmagoric - by E. Hoffmann, philosophical and lyrical - by F.I. Tyutchev, romantically sublime - by M. Vrubel, painfully hypertrophied - by S. Dali, full of mystery - by I. Bergman, real -strict - F. Fellini, etc.

Imagination is understood as a mental cognitive process of creating new images by processing the materials of perception and representation obtained in past experience. Imagination is unique to man. It allows you to present the result of labor, drawing, design and any other activity before it begins.

Depending on the degree of activity, passive and active imagination are distinguished, when the products of the first are not brought to life. Given the independence and originality of the images, they speak of a creative and recreating imagination. Depending on the presence of a consciously set goal to create an image, intentional and unintentional imagination are distinguished.

Imagination arises in situations of uncertainty, when a person finds it difficult to find an explanation for any fact of reality in his experience. This situation brings together imagination and thinking. As Vygotsky L.S. emphasized, "these two processes develop in an interconnected manner." Thinking provides selectivity in the transformation of the impression, and the imagination complements, concretizes the processes of mental problem solving, allows you to overcome stereotypes. And the solution of intellectual problems becomes a creative process.

In addition to the fact that the imagination significantly expands the boundaries of knowledge, it allows a person to "participate" in events that are not encountered in everyday life. This "participation" enriches his intellectual, emotional, moral experience, allows him to more deeply cognize the surrounding, natural, objective and social reality. And the richer the experience of a person, the more material that his imagination has at his disposal.

Consciousness and subconsciousness, reason and intuition participate in artistic creativity. In this case, subconscious processes play a special role here.

The American psychologist F.Berron examined with the help of tests a group of fifty-six writers - his compatriots and came to the conclusion that the writers' emotionality and intuition are highly developed and prevail over rationality. Of the 56 subjects, 50 turned out to be "intuitive personalities" (89%), while in the control group, which included people who were professionally far from artistic creativity, there were more than three times fewer individuals with developed intuition (25%). high role the subconscious in artistic creativity already led the ancient Greek philosophers (especially Plato) to interpret this phenomenon as an ecstatic, divinely inspired, Bacchic state.

In contrast to a scientifically based picture of the world, which prefers to rely on proven knowledge, the picture of the world created by artistic creativity allows not only the existence of an area of ​​the unknown, but also tries to model its possible image. In artistic creation, what is possible acquires the status of an existing one, stimulating the conscious isolation of its signs or features in real life. Thus, aesthetic activity structures the projective activity of the imagination, directing it into the channel of rational cognition. Thus, cognitive activity, on the one hand, is included in the mass consciousness of everyday life, and on the other hand, it receives a powerful impetus to the development of its specialized areas. Artistic creativity - the area of ​​domination of the thought experiment - takes on the role of the leader of the cognitive process in cases where science is still powerless to give an accurate picture of the phenomenon or calculate possible options for its development. The connection of historical knowledge with the field of artistic creativity and the process of its comprehension did not become an invention of modern times. It was inherited and traditional. Over time, only the concretization and redistribution of the functions of the scientific and artistic in the interest of society in the culture of the past and present took place.

Scientific knowledge divides space and time for the convenience of their study. Artistic creativity creates a chronotope - the unity of space-time, where time becomes, according to MM Bakhtin, the fourth dimension of space. Artistic images make the discoveries of science psychologically acceptable to everyday consciousness. Moreover, they give rise to the need to further expand the horizons of a person who does not even have the necessary highly specialized knowledge. The laws of image creation are becoming a sphere of specialized knowledge, attracting the special attention of researchers. Aesthetic systems fix the way of understanding the world that has developed at the level of professional culture, they postulate a picture of the world in the form in which it is available to both the thinker and the practitioner. Aesthetic systems help create a field for experimentation that cannot be done in the laboratory. They also provide an opportunity to test the viability of the created material and ideal constructs, defining the role of artistic development of reality in the knowledge of the world through the study and creation of cultural creations.

Thus, we can conclude that creativity in general, and artistic creativity in particular, is a means of improving thinking. What cannot be comprehended by scientific methods can be represented through artistic images. What cannot be immediately verified by a social experiment is modeled in the collision of a work of art.

That is why it is necessary to develop creativity in a child from a very early age, because it is it that gives rise to a vivid fantasy, a vivid imagination, develops and improves thinking. Creativity, by its very nature, is based on the desire to do something that no one has done before you, or even though what existed before you, to do in a new way, in your own way, better. In other words, the creative principle in a person is always a striving forward, for the better, for progress, for perfection and, of course, for beauty in the highest and broadest sense of this concept.

Druzhinin V.N. notes that creative people often surprisingly combine the maturity of thinking, deep knowledge, various abilities, skills and peculiar "childish" features in their views on the surrounding reality, in behavior and actions.

Often from parents and even from teachers-educators one can hear such words: “Well, why does he spend precious time writing poetry - he doesn’t have any poetic gift! Why does he draw - after all, an artist will not work out of him anyway! And why is he trying to compose some kind of music - after all, this is not music, but some kind of nonsense turns out! .. ”This is a very dangerous delusion. In a child, it is necessary to support any of his desire for creativity, no matter how naive and imperfect the results of these aspirations may be. Today he writes incoherent melodies, unable to accompany them with even the simplest accompaniment; composes poems in which clumsy rhymes correspond to the clumsy rhythms and meter; draws pictures depicting some fantastic creatures without arms and with one leg ... But behind all these naivety, clumsiness and clumsiness lie the sincere and therefore the truest creative aspirations of the child, the most genuine manifestations of his fragile feelings and thoughts that have not yet formed.

He, perhaps, will not become either an artist, or a musician, or a poet (although in early age it is very difficult to foresee), but perhaps he will become an excellent mathematician, doctor, teacher or worker, and then his childhood creative hobbies will make themselves felt in the most beneficial way, a good trace of which will remain his creative imagination, his desire to create something new , his best, moving forward cause, to which he decided to devote his life.

LIST OF USED LITERATURE:

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Bakhtin M.M. To the philosophy of action. - M., 1986

Borev Yu. Psychology of artistic creativity. - M., 1999

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Vygotsky L.S. Imagination and creativity in childhood. - M., 1991

Druzhinin V.N. Psychology of general abilities - St. Petersburg, 1999

Leontiev A.A. Teach a person fantasy ... - M., 1998

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Psychology with a human face: a humanistic perspective in post-Soviet psychology / Ed. D.A. Leontieva, V.G. Schur. - M., 1997

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Ukhtomsky A.A. Honored Interlocutor. - Rybinsk, 1997