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Your Art Speaks to You First
No creative work comes into being without its human creator.
I write because I feel a calling to put words to the screen. In the depths of my soul, ideas come into being that I feel a need to share with the world. Some are fictional flights of fancy. Others are these nuggets of wisdom (or so I hope) I feel you might benefit from.
My art is the written word. That art speaks to me. Whatever creative endeavor you pursue, your art speaks to you first.
Without you, the creation can’t be. Painting, poem, sculpture, recipe, it is only an idea, a concept, without body or form. Then, when your art speaks to you, you make it tangible.
For some, they don’t listen. Hence, they don’t create, they don’t make art. While everyone is a creative in their own way, artists are unique in that what we create is a product of the imagination made manifest to add color, beauty, and intelligence to the world.
For some people, they listen as the art speaks to them, but they create only for themselves. There’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone needs a hobby.
The challenge for professionals is often that your art speaks to you, but to sell it, you need it to speak to others.
Art is utterly subjective
One person’s art is another person’s crap. My mom and stepdad have an enormous, colorful piece of pop art they love and cherish in their home. I get it, I do, but it doesn’t speak to me at all. I find it too loud, too cartoonish, and very much not to my taste.
There’s nothing wrong with that. It simply speaks to the utter subjectivity of art.
As a reader, most of the fiction books I read are sci-fi and fantasy. Sometimes I read other fiction if it speaks to me, or I get a recommendation, and/or the premise interests me. I also read a wide range of nonfiction along the same lines that I write. This includes various forms of self-help, psychology, mindfulness, money consciousness, overall consciousness, and science, most often physics and sociology.
Lots of people aren’t into reading sci-fi and fantasy, or psychology and physics. What interests me, what art speaks to me, is not necessarily what you would be into. And that’s okay because art is utterly subjective.
The problem comes when you get into censorship, banning books, and the like. For the most part, my thought is if you dislike the book, movie, or painting, don’t buy it, observe it, and so on. Not a fan of that artist? Don’t patronize them.
It’s all a matter of choice, and you get to choose the art that speaks to you, as creator or consumer.
Your art speaks to you first
All art is the creation of someone. Sometimes collaborations of multiple someones. It is only a concept, an idea in the ethers, until a person makes it manifest and tangible.
That begins when your art speaks to you. You feel a compulsion, a drive, to make the idea manifest. Then, the wood is shaped and assembled, the clay sculpted, the ink put on canvas, the words on the screen, and your art is material.
Many people disregard the importance of the creation of art. But without art, we stagnate. In a society like this one, living in any environment and with technologies and various creature comforts, art is what inspires inventions and the like. Look at all the ideas Star Trek and TNG gave us that are now part of our reality. Reading this on a phone or tablet? Star Trek helped to inspire such gadgets.
Art awakens the imagination. Imagination leads to creation when your art speaks to you. Then, before you know it, something new has been made manifest in the world.
Necessity might be the mother of invention, but I think that means inspiration is probably the father. How many items in our lives aren’t necessary but still inspired? Does that lessen their value? Not to me.
Maybe your art speaks to you and nobody else, but that doesn’t make it any less important. How many painters have been influenced by the work of Van Gogh? Yet in his life, his art spoke to him but virtually nobody else. The importance of art and what it can be in this world can’t be overstated.
Creative outlets are empowering
Making art is an act of empowerment. Why? Because it is creativity expressed in its purest form.
Too many of the forces in the world at large seek to disempower. Hell, many of their messages are quite blatant about that. They don’t like empowered people because empowered people think more for themselves and don’t follow blindly. Control, as perceived by politicians, business leaders, religious leaders, and so forth, is reduced when people think for themselves.
When art speaks to you, it empowers you. Empowerment comes from your creation, and that can, in turn, inspire others to be empowered. Yes, everyone has creativity in them, but not everyone is an artist. And that’s okay, because any act of creation is an act of empowerment.
Empowered people become beacons of light in the dark and can inspire others. Artists, by and large, help better the world by adding new intelligence, imagination, and inspiration to it.
Please, keep making your art. Your art speaks to you first, then who knows who else it might influence and inspire?
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you every week, please consider this: How are you inspired and empowered to be your own authentic creator, whatever form that takes?
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