But that's sortof the point of the art. It's their way of expressing themselves. Plus they often are amused by what others interpret the meanings to be.
It is really a shame that they have taken so many art forms out of schools. For so many, it's a necessary part of how they relate things and learn. Interestingly enough, for many it's so much a part of who they are that it will show through whether they have a way to channel it or not. I find it interesting how successful some of the art colleges still are too even without the kids having any real exposure to art in K-12.
That's the one good thing I can say about living here in Washington State, at least on the Western side, they have and encourage many creative arts programs both in and out of the school system. And couldn't imagine either of my kids going to a school without some kind of creative arts classes of any kind like I did.
It is definitely a sad thing that little value is placed on art in the schools these days. When I was in school, they focused more on football and the marching band than anything else. We did have a somewhat decent art curriculum for a short time thanks to the wife of one of the local rich families who was an art lover. Because of who she was, they gave her the freedom to make art a bit more of a priority. I took a couple of her classes, and they were awesome. My son also took art in school, but his teacher didn't have much support from the school...the principal tended to refer to her as "that hippie", and they eventually shut the art program down. Of course it has more than just the absence of art programs to do with it, but in many respects our school system in this country sucks the big one. I agree that's definitely a big part of it. It's just that the other big part is the individual interpretation each fan has to someone's art. It's like books; every person that reads a book experiences the story in their own way. It's a very personal response which is one of the beautiful things about it.
It's really amazing. CA used to be such an art friendly state and yet the k-12 schools have cut so much of it out. When I was in Clovis (where the schools were supposedly the best) they refused to do any real art...claiming it was "fluff". I took my kids out of those schools and took them over to Fresno where they ended up in the GATE school. They were in a really great program but even that shifted at about 4th grade. Part of the problem too was that whenever they were doing "art" classes it was very directed and without allowing the kids to explore. They were all just doing very cookie cutter stuff. I used to go in and teach art once a week for free and eventually they put a stop to that because the parents were getting upset that the kids would come home "dirty" (all washable stuff) and/or because they didn't like the results. They didn't realize it was more about the process than the end product. My oldest ended up graduating from a prestigious art school. Truly though the school didn't do much for him. I think so much of it is providing them with the materials, exposure, and the TIME to really explore.
That's usually the typical mindset. It's exactly the mindset that was very prevalent back when I went to school down south. Drafting and architectural classes were college level courses and only offered and taught because it was something that could be applied to "real" work for an honest career. Any other art/drawing/design type courses were only offered and taught as something to be used for advertising or other similar business careers. Creativity and talent be damned.