Adolescents are at a ripe age to make meaning and think abstractly (Kerlavage, 1998); yet, they are not "born knowing how to get ideas into materials, or how materials can be manipulated to shape ideas and meaning" (Burton, 2012, p. 14). Adolescents need guidance in understanding abstract concepts, and art teachers play an important role in helping students see the relationships between materials and ideas--not only in the analysis of artworks, but also in the process of their own artmaking. Artmaking offers adolescents the invaluable process of joining material with meaning, of integrating life experiences and constructing narratives that have personal significance (Burton, 2012; Gilligan, 2011; Zander, 2007). This article discusses the concept of meaning making and its significance for adolescents, highlighting the process of scaffolding high school students for the construction of their own meaningful narratives.