As a child, fantastical creatures, fairies, and talking animals illustrated my imagination. I could hardly be found without a sketchbook and some new world spinning onto its pages. Once I began school, however, and started taking "serious" art classes, I began to lose touch with that imaginative side of myself. Daunted by the idea of needing to do art "correctly," I was too afraid to pursue what made me most happy until nearly halfway through college, when I finally switched into the studio art program. As a result, my personal mission as an aspiring artist and educator is to encourage others to create simply for the joy of creating.
The following links describe how the arts can have positive impacts on health, both mental and physical:
I have found personally that I most enjoy using mixed materials for 3-dimensional projects. Throughout life I have played with making paper cuttings, working with ceramics, collaging with many different kinds of materials, creating fused glass art, and wood burning, to name some. In summary, my interests are eclectic. As McLuhan explains in his book The Medium is the Massage, "When two seemingly disparate elements are imaginatively poised, put in apposition in new and unique ways, startling discoveries often result." (10) It is my hope that through gaining an understanding of so many mediums of expression, I will be able to explore ways to combine them and make new meaning from them.
Hans Christian Andersen, usually known for his fairytales, also created paper cuttings which served as another form of storytelling.
Andersen also used his art to benefit others, as evidenced by the story of his "paper cut fairytale":
While art has often been an introspective activity for me, I also feel that it is when we use our art to reach other people that we make a real and positive difference in the world. Musician Ben Harper sums up some of the ways in which we can change the world around us, simply with our own two hands: https://youtu.be/aEnfy9qfdaU.
I am intrigued by your interest to use art to reach other people. It will be interesting to see how this guiding idea will influence your future art pieces.
ReplyDeleteTashi! I agree, that studio art classes at times can be exhausting and can interfere with fresh ideas and experimentation, especially if you are a perfectionist. Sketchbooks have definitely helped me as well as experimenting outside of class.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you pursue your own happiness through art rather than adhere to the idea that art should be made a specific correct way.
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