The Only Artist in My Family: Selective Self‐Identification in University‐Level Art Students

Abstract

Self-identification is essential to the mediation of educational outcomes, however the selective self-identification of students as an artist remains a relatively unexplored area of research in art education. This project uses qualitative narrative analysis to deconstruct the life stories of university-level art students, to examine formative processes underlying selective artistic self-identification, and to discern how dispositions developed in earlier experiences impact student engagement, performance and motivation at the university level. Research findings indicate students-as-artist identities develop along two distinct dramaturgical positions and emphasise the importance of mentor relationships, student-choice, open exploration, and environmental support to the development of emerging student-as-art identities. The researcher reviews literature broadly supporting an examination of selective self-identification, outlines methods used to deconstruct the life stories of university-level art students, examines evidence of emerging patterns in the data, and concludes with a short discussion of how findings of this project impact the teacher's role in corroborating selective artistic self-identification in students.

Exploring the Textual and Tactile Weave of Academic Subjectivities:

“…Self-portraits have proven extremely useful in exploring the grey area between personal and professional (Hickman, 2010;Tharenos et al, 2019). They are a form of negotiation between the inner and sociocultural/outer worlds (Makemson, 2014). Through our analysis process, three themes emerged: (a) choosing assemblage, (b) self-portrait as construction, (c) pleasure in making.…”

“…In art-therapy, artistic self-portraits are useful introspective tools to express, discover, and re-envision aspects of one's identity (Barel-Shoshani & Kreitler, 2017;Beaumont, 2018;Hanes, 2007;Muri, 2007;Prunet et al 2019). So too, in art education, selfportraits are an often-used practice to connect artist, world, materials, and learning (Hickman, 2010;Makemson, 2014). In the fine-arts world, self-portraits have a long and full history, and continue to remain an important artistic endeavour today (Cheney, 2011;Dadvar et al, 2013).…”