Megan Navarro
BUDA — Artist Ronald Gross, of Kyle, is leading a 30-day challenge that is centered around therapeutic daily drawing — and participants are asked to only use crayons.
The challenge, titled Crayonuary, started in 2017 when Gross was putting together an art talk workshop about raising one’s awareness and tapping into higher consciousness. A component of that workshop was leaving the attendees with a sketchbook, where they would do 30 days worth of drawing.
Having young kids at the time meant a wide variety of crayons at Gross’ disposal and he really began to enjoy fine art with crayons, leading him to start his own sketchbook and, later, the Crayonuary 30-Day Challenge.
“The idea here is to take five minutes of your day in the morning, grab a couple of crayons and a piece of paper and then, try not to think of anything. Just choose colors and crayons and just draw,” he said. “If you do that, most people will notice a difference in their mental health.”
The challenge also stems from Gross’ art journey, especially in college when he got into abstract expressionism. He took art classes in high school and went on to community college, where he studied fine art and graphic design, before transferring to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and later ended up attending the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California.
Following college, he had his professional path as a copywriter and would do fine art on the weekends, where he exhibited all over and teamed up with other artists, showing his work in Europe and throughout the United States.
The now Kyle resident kicked off his Crayonuary challenge at the Buda Public Library with a workshop that was held Jan. 31 with the help of the library and crayon companies — Honeysticks, Dixon Ticonderoga, Color Swell and Crazy Crayons — who donated supplies. It does not matter what they draw, but they must use crayons. Gross has found that the art medium and imagination unlocks something in the adult’s inner childhood.
“If you think about it, when you're a kid, when you are a toddler, at least in this country, your parents are like, ‘Hey, here's a box of crayons, here's a piece of paper. Go draw’ … They're not telling you, ‘Hey, go draw a horse’ or ‘Go draw a tree,’ just go draw. So, now you take your crayons and you just draw spirals or whatever it is. When you're a kid, you have complete artistic freedom,” Gross explained. “Then, what happens is, once you hit kindergarten — or for me, it was first grade — those crayons are taken away from you and then, you're handed a lead pencil, which is gray. It's hard; it's dull. You're told to draw like on the dotted line, don't make mistakes. There's an eraser if you make mistakes. That's perpetuated for the rest of your life.”
Gross continued that he is asking adults to get back to when they were a child and to have the artistic, creative freedom that used to be second nature, especially when they are using a simple and colorful tool like crayons.
“The crayons are a sensory reminder. The touch of the crayon, the smell of a crayon can take you back to that time very quickly. It has this connection. You have an olfactory connection to it,” he said. “I've noticed that there are people that do this in my workshops and stuff, they have these child[hood] memories that come up when they start doing the drawings.”
For those who may be hesitant about a blank page for the next 30 days, Gross and his wife designed a Crayonuary 30-Day Journal, which is available on Amazon, that has daily prompts to help people get their drawings started.
While it is geared more toward adults, everyone is welcome to participate in Crayonuary, which goes from Jan. 30 through Feb. 28. Learn more at www.twelvesquared.com/crayonuary.
