Process Art for Kids

I took my children to an Art class the other day and I learned about Process Art. I thought it was going to be complicated and require lots of instructions, but it was quite the opposite. I was officially instructed not to interfere and "help" my children. For once, I could look at my smart phone and not feel guilty. Ha! It was a much needed break and quite relieving that I did not have to do anything.

To begin, the instructor introduced Piet Mondrian as the artist we would be learning about. She talked about all of 20 seconds on him. Enough time to say his name and show a couple of pictures of his work. I don't think a single kid heard his name or really cared much about his paintings. But they definitely got excited about glue sticks and baskets of colored paper that they were going to glue on white boxes.

My older daughter was all about her lines and boxes.

Whereas my younger daughter randomly placed the lines and paper in no particular order.

I'm sure the instructor didn't intend for it to be this way, but I thought it was a great way to gain insight into their personalities and brain dominance. I suppose if there had by a "right" way to do it, all the boxes would have looked sort of the same. But because it was open ended, each child got to uniquely express him or herself.

Interestingly, their unique personalities emerged again in a painting piece that attempted to imitate Mondrian. The girls had to put tape on water color paper to create grids and then fill with paint.

But, it didn't always come out that way!