Developing creative talent in art: A guide for parents and teachers.

Khatena, J. & Khatena, N. (1999). Developing creative talent in art: A guide for parents and teachers. Stamford, CT: Ablex (195 pp., $ pbk, ISBN-1-56750-408-6).

As the title indicates, the authors' intent is to provide a guide to those interested in developing creative art talent in young people. The six stated assumptions that create the underlying form of the book are: 1) guidance is necessary for those recognized and identified, to maximize achievement of potential artistic talent, 2) artistically talented individuals need to understand creative imagination as a process and skill to be able to use it as a tool for development, 3) mental images are information sources that are derived from the senses prior to translation to symbolic forms, 4) visual art has its own language derived from mental images which can be as expressive as the well-written word, 5) individuals can be taught to use perceptual skills and symbolic imagery to create original work through the use of creative imagination, 6) evaluation is requisite to growth and facilitation of developing art talent. A seventh assumption appears between the lines: creatively gifted individuals may choose to pursue artistic development in the visual arts. The chapter titles address these beliefs: The Creatively Gifted, Measuring Creative Process, Discovering Creative and Talented Individuals, Art and Creative Imagination, Related dimensions of Creative Imagination, Imagery as Language of Discovery, Art Composition as Design, Creative Thinking and Problem Solving Applied to Art, Art Processed by Other Creative Imagination Techniques, Instructional Application in Art, Producing Art Using Creative Imagination, Analogy - Metaphor Making Art, The Magic of Color, and Evaluating Student Artwork. There are 14 suggested activities for students in Chapter Eleven - seven based on the second authors' stylized work with generic forms, four from Guilford's divergent production abilities and three other activities with generic forms.

This book offers a first-person glimpse of the first author's lifetime contributions to creativity research as it might be applied to artistic talent in the visual arts. All fourteen chapters reflect this unique perspective beginning with the identification of creatively gifted individuals (citing jazz and poetry talents as examples). It fortifies the readers' knowledge of the creatively gifted with a lifetime of research (by the first author and selected colleagues), then describes creative thinking techniques used for artistic production. The artistic exemplars that illustrate the contents of the book are the work of the second author. This outlook on developing artistic expression in creatively gifted individuals is the reverse approach from resources that employ similar techniques to stimulate creative thought in artistically talented individuals (e.g. London, 1989; Roukes, 1988). Whether or not these authors perceive a difference between individuals first identified as creatively gifted and those first identified as artistically talented is not established in the text. However, the lack of references to talent development models, research, and resources suggests a difference is perceived between creatively gifted individuals who choose to pursue art expression versus those individuals with innate artistic abilities who need to develop creative talents.

I found the tone of the text to be as charming as it is, at times, ambiguous. For example, in the overview to chapter six: Imagery as Language of Discovery, "seven generic figural motifs" are described as "structured and processed in various ways by creative imagination to produce beautiful and original works of art" (p.59). Questions immediately arise: Do you think this holds true of unbeautiful works of art? All art? In all cultures? Children's art? How did "we" come to know this? My need for the clarity found in scientific support or some type of context or history to these statements often required silencing. It was far easier to focus on the extraordinary display of admiration

REFERENCES

London, P. (1989). No more second hand art: Awakening the artist within. Boston, MA: Shambhala.

Roukes, N. (1988). Design synectics. Worcester, MA: Davis.

Reviewed by Sandra I. Kay, District Coordinator of Gifted Programs, Monroe-Woodbury Central Schools, Vice President N.Y.S. AGATE, Contributing Editor for Roeper Review, and Visiting Scholar: Teachers College, Columbia University.