“Art is like beginning a sentence before you know its ending” (Bayles & Orland, 1993). Artmaking is categorically a process full of uncertainty. But this uncertainty, this fear, manifests differently for different age groups. I have experienced these uncertainties in various stages of my journey as a practicing artist and art teacher. Therefore, besides aspiring to bring art closer to my participants, a.k.a. students, I also strive to assist them in understanding and overcoming this fear on their artmaking journeys. Establishing a trustful and genuine connection with each student is a crucial and long-term practice to do so.

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Regardless of my students’ age group, I believe an effective mentality to conquer fear in artmaking is having a supportive community of peers where students can share their works and work in progress while receiving contributory critiques from one another. To create this emotionally safe environment in the classroom, I encourage students to practice habits such as celebrating each step completed during the process, giving constructive critiques from/to peers, showing one’s own work-in-progress within the group, and giving each other words of affirmation or encouragement.

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An essential action that can robustly elevate the formation of such a safe space for the art teacher or facilitator is giving a suitable prompt to students. This has been a subject of interest to me as an artist and educator since the start of my degree. Considering the students’ experience with art and the medium, their age group, their familiarity with the classroom, etc., with the appropriate “constraints” (Castro, 2007), a prompt can direct the students towards a rewarding process of artmaking while healthily overcoming their sense of fear, and eventually growth can occur. This growth not only means the students’ growth in their crafts but also the growth of their relationships with their works, with their peers, and with their mentors.