I had a tough time coming up with a topic for this post, so I googled what fun national holidays are in March. Because National Crayon Day is March 30, we’re talking about crayons!
I have to admit I wasn’t much into crayons as a kid. I didn’t like how they smelled; I didn’t like how they felt. I didn’t like how easily they broke or how difficult they were to sharpen. Even so, I still had strong opinions about them. I knew Crayola crayons were better than RoseArt and that crayons were not a tool that was supposed to be used for ‘fine art.’ I still hold on to the former, but have very much changed my mind on the latter.
Crayons didn’t even become associated with children until the late 1800s and early 1900s. Crayon manufacturing happened to coincide with the establishment of the kindergarten movement, and an interest in children’s early education was sweeping the nation. Edwin Binney and C Harold Smith, producers of pencils and chalk, recognized a need for safe and affordable school supplies. Together they created the wax crayon, and Crayola was born.
The word ‘Crayola’ was created by Alice Binney and comes from the French word ‘craie’ meaning ‘chalk’ and the word ‘ola’ short of oleaginous or oily. Cool, right?
As an adult, I have grown to love crayons. They are a surprisingly versatile art tool and also very accessible, both from a cost standpoint and because most of us already have years of experience using them. They are playful and immediately bring us back to our childhood. Because they are so playful, it’s easy for us to not take them “too seriously,” which allows us to not take the art we make with them too seriously. I’ve already established that everyone is an artist, and what better way to tap into that creative energy than with something you can easily attain or might already have at home.
In my research (which I did through our databases), I found that crayons actually have a long history in the art world. The wax crayon has been used by great artists like Picasso, Monet, and Cezanne. Prior to them crayons were used by the French painters Francois Clouet and Nicholas L’Agneu. George Washington was even known to have sat for a crayon portrait.
But contemporary artists have used crayons too.
In my reintroduction to using crayons, I discovered the following artists:
Kristina Nelson – an artist from Minnesota who creates beautiful art that lays somewhere between impressionism and realism. Entirely from crayons.
Herb Williams, aka the King of Crayola, creates beautiful sculptures with crayons.
Artist and author Lorraine Bell showcases the myriad of ways you can use a crayon and showcases many contemporary artists who use crayons in these ways. She also breaks down a great history of the crayon in her book The Art of the Crayon.
These people have embodied the quote from artist Al Hirschfeld which goes:
“Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.”
So, I’m encouraging you to pick up a crayon and do some art. Release your inner child, and play with it. Or, at the very least, color a page in a coloring book–that can be fun too–just don’t stress too much about staying in the lines.
If you need some inspiration, check out the booklist below, which will have books containing the history of the crayon and how you can create art with crayons. In addition, you can find the article cited below in our databases if you want a deeper dive.
Girdler, Reynolds. “Crayons in the History of the Arts.” Art Education, vol. 20, no. 1, National Art Education Association, 1967, pp. 31–32, https://doi.org/10.2307/3190944.
Crayons – not just for coloring books and kindergarten | Main library (jcls.org)