The Variety of Visual Means of Expression in the Creative Work of Students

This article is part of a more comprehensive study of the use of artistic (visual) means of expression in nowadays’ visual communication. The author has sought an answer to the question if the strategies developed in the course of centuries for how to embody spatial constructions in a two-dimensional reflection are present not only in professional artists’ but also in highschool students’ creative work. Every student can analyse the performance of an artist as an information bearer and a skilful arranger of the means of artistic expression, and consequently every student can discover new for themselves means of visual expression, their arrangement principles in an artwork, and they can also recognize cultural contexts such as signs, symbols, archetypes, narratives etc. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the situation, the author has analysed the legislative basis regulating the cultural education in Latvia. The study focuses on the quantitative analysis of the means of artistic and visual expression the students have observed and listed as present in certain works of art. The ability to use the acquired knowledge in their own creative assignments has also been analysed. The focus group of the study are students at the General Secondary Education Distance Learning Program of the Riga Distance Education Secondary School. The obtained data provide a quantitative overview also on the mentions of the means of artistic expression in the study books in order to compare traditional and innovative appliance of the means of artistic expression.