The ‘Art’ About Art

Think about this: you’re sitting in class, and your teacher gives you a boring work assignment, probably something to do with math (not naming any names). Suddenly as those equations hit your brain, you slowly begin to lose interest in the subject and find something more appealing to think about. Everyone has their own world they like to get lost in during this period of thinking, and for me, it’s art.

If you think about it, art is hard to miss. It’s up hanging on walls in our rooms, it’s posted all over social media, we even make art ourselves with the tiniest doodle on our notebooks. If you take a step back and enjoy every doodle, painting, or Instagram post, you could see how each artist wanted to express themselves within the art itself, and here’s how.

Now, I know what you’re saying to yourself. “Oh, this is just some generic art talk on how every image has a meaning behind it deeper than it already is.” This could be true for some, but the expression of an art piece is more than just a meaning, it’s the idea that comes from it. 

Here, I’ll give a small, quick example. You’re sitting in class again, listening to the same, mind-torturing math teacher (again no names here), when you suddenly flip to a page in your textbook and see a simple meme drawing. It was crude, maybe unoriginal, but it made you smile and stifle a laugh. From this, it’s obvious what that person was imagining “This is hilarious!” and now you’ve figured out the purpose of the drawing. There was no deeper meaning, yet there was purpose.

Now, this again could be seen as useless. “Why in the world would I do that instead of just accepting there’s a cool art piece in front of me?” To that statement, I will let you in on a little secret. For most pieces, this method evolves the art from the two-dimensional plane in which it resides. This isn’t anything huge, but personally, I believe art is the one most powerful ‘element’ to humans that we can all connect with. We’ve drawn stories, crafted magnificent paintings, created memes, all with the purpose of sharing their emotions with the open world.

What’s one thing you could gain from this quick, short ted-talk ish article? Next time you walk by, scroll by, or just stumble upon any kind of art, give it a quick few seconds to emote from it. Give it a smile, laugh if it’s funny, or feel the mystery emanating from it.