The Process
We do a lot of art around here, but for the last couple of months that has been a bit on the back burner, as we’ve been spending as much time as we can outside. Now that it’s getting too hot to play (the high today was 105), the kids are suddenly asking for “projects” again.
It’s been really neat to watch them the last week or so. Both of them are suddenly doing more with their creativity than they were before.
Ian hasn’t really been into drawing ‘things’ at all; he likes to just put colors on the paper. I’ve been struggling with whether I should introduce the idea of drawings that actually represent something, or just let him come up with it on his own. We’ve talked about drawing shapes and people before, but it’s just not something he’s been interested in. But this past week, he sat down and drew a really neat picture.
Ian’s ‘Superman’
Chava’s ‘Lizard’
It was especially fun to listen to him talk to himself about what he was doing. He put in “Superman”, and then decided that he needed Night and Day. He mumbled to himself about needing a black crayon and a blue crayon for that. Then he added a circle around the whole thing, and some “bad guys”, and some “things to fight the bad guys”. (Which leaves me a little confused, because to the best of my knowledge, he’s never seen Superman in his life. Maybe it’s genetic.)
Both of my kids are really into art that is more three dimensional. Which might be why Ian ripped up his really cool picture that I had planned to save forever, as part of the project. Luckily, I had taken pictures.
There’s been a change in their three dimensional art, as well. They are much more deliberate about what they are doing. Ian especially is trying to recreate something he sees in his mind, rather than just put things together and see what happens. He’s also been much more specific about what he wants. Instead of asking to paint, he’ll ask if he can make a mouse, and cut it out, and glue it to a Popsicle stick, and make it into a puppet.
The funny thing about their projects is the way they turn into so many other things along the way. Ian’s mouse became a frog on a lily pad, and then some smaller frogs, and then a bunch of itty bitty pieces of paper. Because really, it is still very much about the process for them. I don’t consider myself to be artistic at all, so I haven’t given much thought to how art works. But it makes sense to me that there is so much ‘process’ behind the finished product. I would think any artist puts that much thought into their work, and that their work goes through just as many stages and metamorphoses before they are satisfied. I would guess there are many times with the end result is no where near what they originally envisioned.
I am still adjusting a little bit to this new way of doing things. Before they would ask for paint, and I’d hand them paint. Now Ian wants to make something that is real to him. So I ask “what do you need for that?” His answers surprise me, and I am so intrigued by the way his mind puts things together. It’s also fun to watch them with more materials. They come up with things I wouldn’t have dreamed of putting together. My job is to give them what they ask for, and stay out of the way.