“I think that I’ve almost got it,” I muttered as I twisted the string of yarn through the awkward loop I had made with my crochet hook. The lady teaching me, an old woman in her late seventies, smiled as I finally made the second chain to the lopsided square that I had been using to practice crocheting. “There you go!” she exclaimed encouragingly as the level of my frustration diminished.
My art class had come up with a project in which we were going to promote art by yarn bombing, a process in which we wrapped large crocheted rectangles around trees, poles, and other urban structures in public places. The project grew significantly and resulted in us visiting a nursing home to be taught how to crochet by the ladies who have had years of experience with it. This was the best aspect of this project because of the excitement found on the ladies’ faces as they saw our level of interest and started to immerse themselves in the project. They started to share their stories as they reminisced to the time when they were our age. When our art class got back from this trip, we shared our newfound knowledge with anyone willing to learn. Watching my peers spend their time crocheting instead of watching television or getting into trouble filled me with such a great deal of joy, and I wanted nothing more than for this to be amplified.
The beneficial process of teaching and sharing art is something irreplaceable. The joy discovered through creating and the reward of sharing that joy with others is something that I believe should be greater promoted in schools, as a career choice, and as an everyday practice. There are those who argue that art is a waste of time, money, and effort. There are those who argue that being an artist is an unrealistic and silly dream. I know there are those people who feel this way because I have experienced them firsthand. I have taken art classes which have had very limited funding. I have had adults and peers scoff at my choice of having a creative lifestyle as a career. I have seen other art students search unsuccessfully for something else they are good at and passionate about because they felt there was no future for them in the art field.
Art is so important because it allows people to focus their thoughts and emotions in a beautiful way which can be shared and seen by others. I use art to channel my negative thoughts into something positive. Art has always helped me process information and settle my jumbled mind. In order to make art, an idea must be simplified so that it can be read at a single glance. Translating this idea into everyday life is exactly the idea behind visual learning. Many people are visual learners and must use art to either comprehend an idea or get an idea across.
Younger generations especially tend to be visual learners, which is why it is so important to promote art in schools. When children study the basic elements of art (line, value, color, shape, and texture), they become more aware of these elements in everyday life. After taking several art classes in high school, my eyes have been taught to look at the world differently. Because of this, I am not only more aware of the world around me, but I have developed a whole new way of thinking and studying. I can look at an object and break it down into the basics of what it really is. For example, if I were trying to draw my own hand, I would look at it and see that it is composed of abnormal cylinders. I would see how the lines travel and how contact points are made as the skin is stretched and folded. I would see that my skin is complied of a thousand colors instead of a single flesh tone. This kind of thinking is a result of the artistic process and awakes a whole new side of the brain which would otherwise be underdeveloped.
Learning visually is also helpful to students by teaching them to be creative in both school and life situations. It teaches students to think about concepts in a different way than that which is presented to them. For example, when students see the details in a situation they are more than likely to have a better understanding of the situation than they would if they were looking at it as a sum of parts. This kind of detailed thinking allows students to develop an open mind in which they ask questions about everything placed in front of them and constantly search for new ways to look at it.
The process of creating is one which engages others and connects many different types of people. Just like written work is meant to be read, art is meant to be looked at and shared. I have developed countless relationships by asking opinions and sharing work with other artists. There is truly nothing more intimate than sharing art with others because art exposes so much about the person creating it. The project I explained earlier was one of the best examples of the benefits of sharing art because so many people got on board with it. I loved learning from many different people including my art teacher, the ladies in the nursing home, and some of my own peers. I also enjoyed teaching others the process of crocheting. We all helped each other learn and I felt that I learned more as I was teaching than I did when I was simply listening and paying attention.
Creating good work also is very time-consuming. When I make art, I dedicate almost all of my extra free time to it. Since I am a teenager, my free time is otherwise typically spent in front of a television, on a computer, or at McDonald’s. Art forces young people to engage in something hands-on and that requires conscious thinking. Having art programs in troubled schools is crucial because it reduces the amount of time that students could be spending with the wrong types of people, getting into crime-related activities like drugs, vandalism, and loitering. By making art, young people spend their time creating rather than destroying or even worse, staying static. I have been in situations with friends where we were bored and had nothing to do, so we went to galleries downtown and looked at art all night. My friend Haley and I spent an evening sitting on her bedroom floor and making collages of everything we were feeling that day. Instead of going home after school and turning into potatoes in front of the computer, my friend Samm and I spent countless hours in the studio of our school finishing projects and doing all we could to make them better.
The process of creation is perhaps one of the most marvelous processes in the world. To transform objects and supplies into completely new forms is a rewarding experience and so few processes have the same result as art. The ability to see materials and transform them into completely new things is a skill that is very important in the “real world” as well. Creativity is always going to be a desired quality in the job market, and because of that one can have a creative lifestyle as a career choice without being a stereotypical starving artist. For example, most marketing and advertising fields need artists. Jobs in which design is involved, including film, television, websites, video games, need artists. The fields of web design and graphic design are growing more and more with each addition of new technology. Applications used on phones, tablets, and e-readers all were made with the help of designers.
Art is as important as other subjects in school like reading, science, or physical education. The way of thinking developed through art is crucial to the holistic mind of a student and therefore should be given the same amount of funding as other subjects. As an art student, I constantly felt like I did not have the resources that I needed to be successful. There was nothing more frustrating, except being told that I could not do what I wanted to do as a career. The benefits of the social aspect of sharing art should be encouraged rather than looked down upon. It is as important to encourage art as it is to fund it.
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