What is art?

Art is life and life is art.

Keith Haring wrote those words in 1978 and I agree with him completely.

Kids working on crafts

Photos and artwork by Janice Boling

Everyone is born with art in their soul.

Art is a result of being born into a fleshy body with five physical senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste), plus possessing a soul that longs to create. The desire to create something beautiful or something new, makes art possible.

Art is part of being born human, a way to express ourselves, and a great gift that comes with having a brain in God’s likeness.

We are all born artists.

Babies are new creatures with art in their souls even though they don’t know it yet. Patterns and colors are exciting. Music brings wonderment and joy. From a wooly blanket to mashed banana, textures are amazing. The scent of our mother is comforting. Food is delicious and sweets are pure enjoyment. Art is life and life is art. Distinctions are not made by little babies.

As toddlers, we have the desire to create.

Small children love to color and draw. Crayons and finger-paints are tools that help bridge that divide from reality to the imagination. Construction paper, glue, scissors, paint, and brushes help turn everyday things into beautiful creations. This is art.

Practicing art does more than teach hand-finger coordination. It gives young people a chance to experiment with shape, form, texture, color, and to create out of nothingness. How exciting is that?

Children like to paint, work with clay, and make crafts. They also enjoy singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, and performing in plays. Kids like to cook, bake, and make flower arrangements. There are lots of different tools that can help children develop their creativity.

Any art project will do!

Beading, needlework, macramé, scrap-booking, watercolors, clay, leather working, cake decorating - the list goes on and on. If given a chance, most children and teens can take a few supplies and keep themselves entertained for hours without a phone or computer.

When I was a child, I really enjoyed arts and crafts time. At school, we made everything from greeting cards to ugly clay ashtrays. Once I glued beans and corn kernels on cardboard to make a turkey for Thanksgiving. Mother used it as a decoration for years until it was finally eaten up by weevils. You can read all about art in my early years here.

Parents and teachers should demand that schools provide outlets for creativity for every student.

Whether visual arts or music, dance or drama, we need to keep the arts in our schools. These type of programs are proven to help young people become better citizens. Let's all encourage children to draw, paint, sing, and dance! We should also be on the look out for anything that stifles a kid's imagination and do our best to stop it. We need more artists and creatives in the world, not fewer!

What if my child is not interested in art?

Some children find that they are gifted at more practical things and leave art behind. They go on to become our mathematicians, airplane pilots, and football stars. Some children decide art is not for them and find other hobbies and pass-times. They go on to do all kinds of useful things that the world needs.

These individuals may go on to pick up art as a hobby later in life, they may become gourmet cooks (which is an art form all its own), or gardeners (which I also consider art). There are many, many ways to create and fulfill our roles as creative beings.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A few children show artistic tendencies right from the start. They are the ones that ask for watercolor sets for Christmas, beg to take piano lessons, and can keep themselves occupied for hours with some Magic Markers. When you ask them what they want to be when they grow up, they know the answer. An ARTIST!

Artists start young but it's never too late!

Many professional artists began as young children with crayons, coloring books, and play-dough, progressing on to poster board and paint. These youngsters develop a love for visual art that stays with them for a lifetime. Creating becomes as essential to life as eating and breathing.

Even Grandma Moses, famous for doing her first painting at age seventy-seven, showed artistic promise when quilting, making patterns, and drawing as a young girl. Creativity was in her from the beginning but she was too busy raising children and doing farm work to think about art. Finally in her late 70’s, Ms. Moses got the chance to paint and it made her famous.

Everyone has the seeds for art inside their hearts when they are born, whether supplies are available or not. Babies find joy in the rhythm of a nursery rhyme and playing drums with a spoon on a metal pot. Young children reach for bright, colorful picture-books and toys or flowers and bugs! Budding young artists draw with chalk on a sidewalk or make collages out of magazine pages.

It’s never too late for art.

Even adults, who have forgotten how, can learn to express themselves with art. It is never too late. It may take some experimenting, but suddenly the perfect medium will appear. I’ve seen it happen many times through the years.

Artists of all ages look for creative outlets.

Some turn to music or dance. Others choose writing, sculpture, pottery, photography, drawing, painting, or a combination. Art takes many forms and includes woodworking, needlework, beadwork, fabric arts, collage, metal work, glass work, wearable art, mixed-media, cooking, baking, scrap-booking, and more. From sand art to macramé, an endless variety of artistic mediums exist in the world.

Now is the time for art.

If you have an inner artist crying to get out, then now is the time! Buy some art supplies, take a class, or watch a how-to video online. Relax with a cup of favorite herbal tea. Turn some ideas over in your head. Let your art flow out of you like a river.

If that is not your thing, then encourage a child or teenager to make some art. Most kids today will tell you that they love arts and crafts.

Too bad school budgets don’t have art at the top of the list.

Some schools don’t even have art classes at all. So buy art supplies for children and teens. Give the younger ones crayons and coloring books. Send the older ones to private art class! Who knows? Since we are all born with the seeds of art inside us, these young people could become the next Picasso, Leonardo di Vinci, or Michelangelo. Wouldn’t that be something?

Thanks for reading my post. Jan.

Sources:

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/haring-keith/life-and-legacy/

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