Home drawing events: A case study of a boy and his dragons

In this ethnographic case study the concept of the home drawing event was explored by examining the artistic activities of a particular child in his home environment for over a period of 21 months. The examination of children's drawing events is important to understand children's artistic development. Many scholars have studied home drawing events, but no one has explicitly studied the meaning of drawing events in the home environment. Many studies have shown the importance of the home to children's general education. This work specifically extended the general concept of the drawing event to the home environment.;In order to study this event, a socio-cultural framework was used. For this study, an 8-year-old Korean boy named DV was selected as the person of interest. He was temporarily living in the United States with his family while his mother obtained her degree. This transient child was selected in order to better highlight differences in culture in the home environment. The child was observed in his home environment for 21 months. Over these 21 months, the researcher observed the child's creation of a sequence of dragon drawings; this observation offered insights into the boy's home drawing event. The work was coded and analyzed in relation to his relationship with family members, culture, and objects found in his home environment.;Study findings pointed to the overwhelming influence of the home drawing event on the child's artistic development. The home drawing event had no beginning or end. In fact, the home drawing event was an ongoing process that touched every aspect of his daily life. Additionally, his home drawing event fostered an environment of experimentation and merging of ideas from his Asian culture and new western home. This merging was best represented in the hybridity between western and Asian dragon styles in his drawings after western dragons were introduced into his U.S. home. Study findings will hopefully guide future work on the influences of the home drawing event.