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The importance of making students comfortable with art cannot be overstated. Students who are successful in their art methods class will be more willing to teach art in their own classrooms. Further, as future teachers, they will be more likely to appreciate the value of art as an integral part of the total curriculum. Three years ago I began teaching an art methods course at a small liberal arts college. The class had been designed to meet requirements for both elementary education and art education students because of low enrollment in both programs. The course content included stages of child development in art, lesson planning, classroom organization, aesthetic perception, and art production skills. While both groups handled the theory content of the course well, there was a marked difference in the level of confidence in art production ability and in discussing art works. As a result, I took their varying degrees of art expertise into account when I planned art production activities. At the time I was teaching this methods course, I did not have the opportunity to study, in depth, a problem of great import, the association of anxiety with art production and discussion of art works. However, since returning to graduate school, I have had the opportunity to do such a study in conjunction with a course on naturalistic inquiry.