Collaborative Art: Making a Masterpiece Together
My favorite thing about art is how it transcends the normal lines that divide us. You don’t have to have incredible technique to create something meaningful. Seasoned experts can learn from the perspective of young beginners. For this reason, I love to see my young daughters create. They can’t tell you why placing that line there, or drawing that flower looks so good, they just do it. I find their uninhibited approach refreshing and I love to come up with new ways to challenge them.
My five year old daughter and I recently decided to make something together. She loves to paint, so we started there. We took a special trip to the art supply and picked out a few things. We started with watercolor paints, but ended up switching to acrylics for a more vibrant look.
I set up a little work station with our supplies at one end of our dining room table. We also set a few guidelines before we got started:
1. We would each add one color to the canvas everyday.
2. We would do our painting while the other one was out of the room, so they would be surprised.
3. We would try not to paint completely over the other persons art work.
We worked on our project for 3-4 days, sticking to the guidelines and each adding a new color each day. At that point we both decided we could each starting adding more than one color each day. After about a week, we both agreed the painting was finished and we added the final colors together.
I love this project for so many reasons! It was a pleasure to sit down everyday and see what my daughter had added to the painting. I was impressed by her focus and ability to stay within the guidelines (she normally finishes a whole painting within minutes). I could also tell that working on a project as my equal made her feel really special. And now I have tangible proof of the beauty that is created when we come together and treat each other with respect.
This project could be easily modified to fit any type of art form. Does your child like to cut and paste? Why not work on a large collage together? Or perhaps a pencil drawing or clay sculpture. The important thing is to work together to create something you both love.
