Robert and I went outside and plugged in the hair dryer. "Fire it up, Aunt Joy!" he squealed. With his direction, I began to melt the crayons.
I was actually surprised. The crayons did not melt thickly, like I thought they would. The melted together, and blended a lot with each other on the canvas. I thought it would leave thick crayon wax along the white spot, but it was really thin - except for in the middle, where it covered up Robert's words, "Be happy." He didn't mind. In fact, he was way more satisfied with the outcome than I was. I could see the imperfections - the hot glue leftover, the thick, mottled crayon wax and the thin colors alongside.
I know I have issues with perfectionism. I want everything to be symmetrical, exact... perfect. Robert, being seven, sees more of the fun in it than I do. As it turns out, he taught me how to enjoy the imperfections - what I really liked was the way the crayons spurted off the edges of the canvas! That was beautiful in my eyes!
What was next for us? I put off my turn, as I wanted Robert to be able to get his art finished before his parents came to pick him up. We had six more canvases, but he wanted to add more color to the one we just finished. Which made me think - we don't EVER have to be finished with these! We can continue to add, melt, and add more if we'd like! How neat that this could be something we keep changing over time.
After a bit more decision-making as to the placement of the crayons (I do love that Robert is okay with randomness!), we were ready to blast it with heat once again. This time, Robert did ALL the work! Oh, did he seem to enjoy this!
This is Robert's final crayon melting art...
No comments:
Post a Comment