Anyone Can Be an Artist
Art is the manifestation of human imagination in different forms. Where one can express it by painting, another can do so by sculpturing. There are numerous forms of art one can take on, even if it’s as insignificant as random doodles that you draw when you’re bored in class. Imagination breathes life into whatever your mind conjures up, that can be grouped with what someone would call “art”. Does any human-being lack imagination? No. Then why is it that some are led to believe that they cannot be artists?
Science is what would be called the opposite of art; where facts constitute the former, and expression dominates the latter. Humans have been reduced to something as simplistic as being one or the other. If you’re someone who likes facts over abstract ideas, you’re thought to have a scientific mind; whereas if you’re inclined more towards using your creativity, you’re believed to be an artist. However, could science really have made it this far without imagination?
Facts were the end-product of a long process that started with an idea. A theory no matter how foolish it was to the commoners, slowly evolved as more and more evidence was collected to support it. It all began with a person thinking outside the box, coming up with a new idea, and then trying to prove or disprove it. Art was weaved into the whole process as closely as the threads of yarn in your sweater. So, when anyone tries to give their two cents about how the two are unrelated, you’d know what to tell them.
Another common belief about art is that you have to be talented to pursue it. As children, most people are discouraged to continue doing anything artistic if they’re not very good at it. As a consequence, they’re more likely to give up on it as they grow up, killing their creativity completely. Discouraging someone based on what someone else perceives as “not good enough” is not only absurd but also insignificant when it comes to whether the person enjoys bringing their imagination to life or not. If someone’s discouraging you from enjoying yourself just because they don’t like what they see, then it’s time you stop valuing others’ opinions about what you like doing.
Tragic as it is, most of the creativity is lost in the whole process of discovering whether you’re cut out for it or not. Creativity is just one face of art everyone sees. However, there’s much more to it than a person expressing their imagination in visual form. Many psychiatrists, like Carl Jung for example, believed that art reflects a person’s inner state of mind. Carl Jung had even applied this theory to some of his patients, whom he used to help him extract a diagnosis. Many also believed that it could be a form of catharsis. Ever felt really stressed or anxious and just randomly started writing a song, or playing your guitar? It could even be those times you picked up your pen and started writing down your thoughts in your journal.
Where art offers release and solace of mind, it inevitably enhances your creativity and helps you come up with newer ideas. With so much that it can offer, would you really throw it all away just because someone, a long time ago, told you that you weren’t good enough?
