This article draws on chapter 8 of "Art for Life: Authentic Instruction in Art," by Tom Anderson and Melody Milbrandt (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005) [c] McGraw-Hill. Reprinted by permission.Why do people make art? And why should we teach students to make it? At the root of it, we make art to make sense of things, to give meaning to our existence. When we express ourselves through making art, we create something tangible to look at, hold, reflect on, feel, and try to understand in our minds and bodies. Artists as diverse as the abstract expressionist Mark Rothko and the naturalist/environmentalist artist Andy Goldsworthy agree that what they do is create meaning when they make art (Lipsey 1988; Walker 2001). Artists connect ideas and emotions through the physical act of constructing aesthetic forms to represent their meanings. Kinesthesis and consciousness, body and head sense, coincide. The eye, the mind, the heart, and the hand interact and inform each other when we make art (Anderson 1992).