We do process art pretty often around here.  With two toddlers, process art feels like the perfect introduction to art and materials.  My girls are used to creating freely with little or no expectations besides being safe and not eating the materials.  It was so nice to bring my husband into the mix this time! It didn’t happen totally on purpose but now that it did, I want to do this more often.  We all sat around a table and experimented with crayons in an attempt to make a crayon art sculpture.  I learned two things from this experience.  1.  Glue gun glue resists wax so you can’t use it to glue bare crayons to bare crayons.  Oops.  2.  Creating together as a family is an awesome bonding experience that can be so much fun!

It started with this little monkey and a jar of crayons.  It is so funny to see what keeps a toddler entertained.  D must have dumped that jar, opened and closed the lid over 50 times.  After about 20 minutes or so I brought out the glue gun and Evan and Gigi joined us.  I was thinking Ev was going to make the crayon sculpture and Gigi would be his assistant, but like I said, we quickly learned the wax and glue was not the best combo for any major building.  Instead, we tried melting crayons at the tip and pressing them into cardboard.  It was great because D was content to move the crayons back and forth in the jar and Ev helped Gigi with the glue gun.  I can hear mom’s gasp as they see my almost 3 year old using a glue gun.  Everyone has their own comfort level.  Gigi has used a glue gun many times, actually, and it’s never been a problem.  We make sure it’s low temperature and I feel comfortable with it.  So, there you go.

When the crayons melted a little, it was really cool to rub them over the cardboard.  We were able to make them stick up from the cardboard and called it a city.  Before long Gigi got the bag of crayon wrappers and added those to our art as well.  Ev continued to experiment with trying to bind the crayons together.  He doesn’t give up easily!

After about 20 minutes or so, it occurred to me that we were all collaborating on this process and it was so much fun.  Family process art can have great depth to it.  There is decision making, compromising, sharing and communicating happening throughout.  My style is so different from my husband’s.  It’s fun to see how he goes about making things.  If I didn’t stop him I think he’d still be sitting at the table trying to get the crayons to melt together into a perfectly symmetrical castle or something.  I’m much quicker to give up and move on.  Regardless of our different styles, it was really fun working together.  I love that our kids got to see us working together too, and see we all play a role in creating something.  Process art would be a great way to commemorate birthdays.  I’ve been looking for a tradition to start and I think we found it.  Do you ever create as a family?  I’d love to hear about it if you do in the comments below.