So I Googled “what do I do with all this art” and the search yielded no useful results. I suspect this is a common amateur artist question, and probably the reason many people just give up and move on to another hobby. I hoped for some wisdom, some kernel of advice that would suddenly make my closet full of finished paintings a worthy undertaking. Plenty of advice on how to price art, how to sell art, and how to figure out what art to make to sell. But I’ll be honest, much of what I do is not good enough to sell, and at this point in my life I don’t have the energy (or the need) to try to build a brand or a business to market my work. I like to draw, I like to paint. And I was searching for some intrinsic value to this endeavor that takes up a good chunk of my time and my life. I’ll be honest, I am looking for some grand purpose in my life. At 66 years old, retired, alone; I struggled to find meaning and purpose.
Google did not help me.
The problem for me is that doing things just for the enjoyment of doing them, after the loss of my wife, after a year of retirement, and in the shadow of so many years working, seemed frivolous. I wonder, when does that end? When does personal enjoyment, learning, doing fun things become okay all by themselves without adding any value greater than simply “the doing?” Am I destined to forever question the benefit of leisure.
Maybe the purpose of life is to strive to become one's best self. Nothing more complicated than that.
The things you look forward to every day.
To do the best you can at what you endeavor.
To connect with people who matter to you and who you care about.
To bring some joy into the world.
To bring some joy into your own life.
To be better today than you were yesterday.
To see the beauty in everything.
So back to the question, why make art that sits in a closet?
After much thought I think this is the answer. Because it fits most (if not all) of these categories. I look forward to it every day. It provides me an opportunity to see improvement in something I attempt. Through groups like art associations it has connected me to like minded people. It brings some happiness in my own life, and though my artwork itself probably is not guilty of making anyone else particularly joyful, it’s impact on my own self most likely manifests itself positively in my interactions. Maybe if I’m happy it will rub off. And it gives me a chance to be a better me.
But the one that really hit me was the last one, seeing beauty in everything.
Art makes a person look at the world differently. A few months ago a couple of workmen were replacing siding on the upstairs of the house across the street. I could see them through the window of the room I use as a studio. I took a photo and painted them. An absolutely useless painting of two guys on a roof, zero commercial value, but it was fun to do. The point being that art makes you look at things you might otherwise ignore. In this case it was the interesting shadows that cast on the building from the harsh sunlight that inspired me to paint the scene.
Color is a good example of this. Ask someone, a non-artist, to draw a glass, likely it will be only a colorless outline. It is nothing short of amazing how many different colors can be reflected off the surface of a shiny apple, or refracted through a clear wine glass, or even poured into a shadow streaking bland pavement. The shapes, variations, movement, and emotions of peoples bodies and faces. Now I see it all as beautiful. This enhanced perspective on life, on beauty either natural or manmade, is in itself enough argument for anyone to explore their creativity. Not to mention humility, the effort it takes to recreate in a meaningful way that which God (or a higher power) has seemingly thrown together so casually cannot help but make one feel small in this big world.
To look down a city alley and see the juxtaposition of buildings, dumpsters, and tangled power lines is for me a wondrous sight. Most people would look at that scene and say it was ugly, but peering down that alley I saw something different.
This enhanced perspective is in itself ample justification to pursue art, even if the results of my labors are not highly marketable, or come close to the beauty of what I see.
Once I started painting I started seeing everything differently. The way I look at people and buildings and scenes. The shapes, shadows, features made everything more interesting to me. It seems like a small benefit but it is huge. To be able to see beauty where others may avert their gaze is a gift. Not a gift in the form of any special talent or artistic genius, I profess none of that. But a gift of seeing the world more fully. It would be foolish of me to not take advantage of that.
That’s why I try to make art.
