April 15 May Be Tax Day but It’s Also World Art Day

The date was chosen to honor one of the world’s greatest creatives, Leonardo Da Vinci. The International Association of Art partners with UNESCO to host global events around the world each year, including in far-flung locations as Japan, Bosnia, and Costa Rica.

Given the current state of the world with political uncertainty, financial insecurity, and food/housing scarcity, people often turn to art and creativity to sooth their troubled minds. But it is so much more than simply a way to pass the time or self-sooth. Creativity is the very essence of being human.

According to Psychology Today, art:

• Expresses emotions
• Captures history
• Creates new languages of “color, form, and line”
• Offers distraction during difficult times of upheaval
• Sparks joy
• Brings healing
• Cultivates a childlike sense of wonder

We come into the world dreaming in artful ways. We create without thinking about it with our hands and our minds. We scribbled beautiful colors with our crayons. We played house or dress up or toy soldier. We told scary ghost stories around the campfire, tried our hand at watercolor paints, or made paper cutouts. All of those activities were vital to our brain function as we grew.

Losing Our Creativity in Adulthood

But somewhere along the way, many of us got busy with work and our creative hobbies were replaced with laundry loads and Netflix and doctor appointments.

For those who kept at their hobbies, even through lack of time and money, they may have been able to turn them into a career or at least use those skills within their careers in some form or fashion.

Falling By The Wayside

If you didn’t keep up with your hobbies, have you often wished you could go back to them? Take up that pen, brush, or crochet needle again? Create simply for creation’s sake?

What’s stopping you?

For my part, I’ve dabbled in all sorts of creative pursuits during my life: writing novels, painting watercolors, rendering 3D characters, and learning environment art. To this day, I still practice all of these endeavors. And I often realize that my life would be dim and stressful and miserable without them.

Not everyone wants to create. If you do want to but don’t for whatever reason, it can leave a gaping hole in your life.

Make Art For You Alone

From a purely scientific point of view, the neurotransmitter serotonin plays a vital role in the act of creation. It helps stabilize our emotions so that we can articulate what we are feeling through our creations. Not only that but it also helps us think outside the box when it comes to problem solving at work too.

And remember, art helps us see and make connections between unrelated things as well as dream up new ways of thinking, being, and doing. Art, in a very real way, is an act of both defiance and hope. It can be something you do solely for yourself: to reduce anxiety or work through trauma.

Make Art With Others

It also be an activity you do with others, which fosters a sense of togetherness and community. No matter what kind of creativity you engage in, it will always be a worthwhile endeavor. Not only that, but it may also improve your health, reduce your stress, and bring you a deep sense of joy.

And isn’t that what we all long for?

Is Art Still Relevant?

The advent of generative-AI has left many artists questioning whether a future career in art is even feasible now. I have talked with many who are disillusioned, frustrated, and angry over the loss of their livelihoods and the theft of their art to feed the gen-AI databases. I have wrestled with similar frustrations. But every day I create art it is in defiance of the technology that seeks to take it from me. But it IS me. I am my art and it is me.

I decided recently that no matter what happens, I won’t ever stop making art. I’ll say it again: creativity is the very essence of being human. And unless I’ve turned into a cyborg when I wasn’t looking, I’m still human. So I’ll keep on making art, for both me and the world. I hope you do too.

What do you love to create? Could you take a few minutes today to create something new?