The Value of Process Based Art
So many parents prefer art projects with a polished product at the end. Something they can show off on social media. Often in the quest for having something to show off we overlook the value of messy process art that ends looking like a pile of nothing.
While you will not find yourself with some amazing creation your child gets so much out of process-based art.
- Sense of freedom
- Creativity
- Challenged mind as they figure out how to use given materials
- Sensory exploration
- Spatial reasoning
We were introduced to process based art this year with Mother Goose Time and the new Invitations to Create. I was nervous at first. How would my kids react to being told take these materials and do what you want?
In the end my fears were put aside as my children fully embraced the wonders of getting messy and taking risks in their art. They loved it and I loved seeing little minds at work. Now it is winter and we do feel sad about that but know spring will come soon and I can take them out into the sunshine and let them paint at the picnic table again.
The kids look forward to packing way the markers and pulling out the finger paints again. As we work on remodeling I am working on creating a space that will be easy to clean up and a lot less delicate than our 100+-year-old hardwood floors so we can enjoy this again.
I will admit the Invitation to Create method of art is easier on me than project based. With the little one’s project based art is mostly done by me not the two-year-old. Clean up is the hard part. Turns out our watercolors are not as washable so they claim to be.
