Finding the artist in all of us – Part 1

Every human born has a spark of creativity living within him, along with a deep-seated desire to express this creativity and to share it with others. This comanding spirit of self-expression emerges when we are very young and continues throughout our lives. How much it develops depends on how much we feed it.

What is art? According to the dictionary, art is “the creation of beautiful or thought-provoking works.” But how do we define “beautiful”? As the old saying goes, it’s in the eye of the beholder. When my five-year-old grandson proudly displays one of his crude drawings, I see beauty in it, although it would certainly not win any awards at a judged art show.

All of us create things of beauty every day. Art can be found in the preparation of a meal, in the writing of a letter, in the sewing of a shirt. As humans, we are fascinated with beauty, in all its forms. We are instinctively drawn to it. It emerges from our subconscious when we select a mate, when we apply makeup, and even when we choose our clothing. Think about it. When you’re getting dressed to go out into the public, you want to wear something that “matches.” Why? Because you want to look visually appealing, if only to yourself. A plaid shirt with striped slacks would be just as comfortable and useful as an outfit that “goes together,” so why do we almost automatically prefer something more attractive? It’s because of that ubiquitous little spark.

Since the dawn of time, man has been fascinated with art and beauty. Examine a simple spear point fashioned 10,000 years ago by an ancient hunter. These were utilitarian objects, necessary for daily survival, yet no one could deny the inherent art displayed in such an object. Look at old quilts, made by primitive hands for the purpose of keeping out the cold of Winter nights. Their beautiful designs did not make them warmer, so why did their creators go to such lengths to make them beautiful?

Yes, we all have a degree of art within us, but to become a true artist, we must feed this innate spark and fan the flames by pursuing and developing our talent until it becomes a raging fire of passion within us. We must discover our medium of expression and explore it if we ever hope to truly master it. We might find it in paints and brushes, in music, in woodworking, in working with clay or plaster, in clothing design, in drawing architectural plans, in creating a computer program, or through the written word. The possibilities are endless.

To find our hidden artist, we must seek inspiration from our surroundings, from things we see every day. According to Wordsworth, who created art with beautiful verse, we must take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. He could write an entire lyric poem about something as simple as a daffodil and make his readers understand his passion for the natural world. We all share this ability to some degree.

We won’t all turn out to be Wordsworths, or Picassos, or Beethovens, but we can all be artists in our own way. We must first be inspired, then we must find a suitable vehicle to express and share the object or event with our fellow man. From the first crude cave paintings to the medieval castles of Europe to the works of Rembrandt, our souls have cried out for self expression. And for as long as mankind exists, it will always be.