At the beginning of the semester I went into this art class thinking it was going to consist of basic drawing and painting skills. Of course I know that art can be so much more than something on a canvas. There’s sculptures, photography, animation, design, dance, and so much more. Personally though, I never explored any of those things because I was holding onto what I did in my old highschool art classes. The school had a ceramics class and then an art class. Ceramics was obvious as in you know what that class is going to be. Art, although has a wide spectrum, the classes were just painting and drawing. This could get confusing and alter a normal person’s interpretation of art into thinking “art” is just painting and drawing, and that ceramics is just another thing on the side. However, that is an art. So was what the people did in the fashion class, and in the woodshop class. It is all art, just executed differently. This class helped remind me that there is so much moreout there that we can do and use to express something. Because to me, art, in whatever form, is used to express and show something. It can be just showing a simple picture, but can also be more abstract, emotional, and open to interpretation like dance for example. Again, I always knew art can be so many more things, and now ooking back at all the activities from the semester, whether it was stuff I did or something of someone else, it really shows how we all are creative in our own ways. To me, art is something someone does with creativity and purpose and feeling. To try and get more specific would only shut out things that in their own way, are art too.
I am a business marketing major, and with this I see a lot of potential to be creative and use some form of art. Business itself is very broad, then trying to concentrate on marketing, it still doesn’t help narrow it down because that is still a very broad field as well. There is the digital side of things, or social media is big nowadays, but then there is also all the number stuff and the analysis side to marketing. I of course do not know yet what I really want to do in life careerwise, but I want to be on the side of marketing where you are creating visual type things, so in a way like advertising. Basically I want to do something where you are still trying to sell or market something for like a big company or brand. With this I feel you have to be very creative and artsy, because you want to create something that will excite viewers and give these people the feeling to go out and get or do or see whatever is being marketed. You have to be able to covay some sort of specific message for whatever you are working for, but still make it fun and interesting to bring people into whatever it is. This could be the giant advertisements on billboards, ads on instagram, comercials, product packaging, etc….there is so much still on that can be done on the creative side of marketing. It is not always just pictures and videos, real or animated, it is also typography and fonts used that make sense with the product and bring the whole aesthetic together. Either way, art can heavily be used in the marketing world, as long as it is fun, interesting, enticing, and the message is still simple, clear, and understandable.
When it comes to art, I easily gravitate more to traditional in terms of drawing and painting. For painting, I use both oil and acrylic, depending on how realsitic I want it to come out, because I prefer to paint in a more realistic style. Although to some people this might soundstressful and tedious, but I actually enjoy painting. It can be very time consuming or tiring, but in a way it calms me and pushes me to get better. This is a skill that although takes a lot of practice, I’m happy to do so because I enjoy the end result. When I paint something I’m very proud of and it looks pretty realistic, I love how happy it makes me because I‘m in shock and astonished that I actually did that. Therefore yes, I do believe that engaging in some form of art is enriching and makes you a more complete human. It is something new and amazing, whether just a hobby, or skill, or line of work, it can be truly powerful because of the different perspective it brings.
Of course art matters. People at first might not think so, but when you really think about it, and if all the arts and artists ansd impulses were gone forever, the world would not be at all how it is. We would be missing out on so much it is actually quite scary to think about it. No paintings and pictures to put up on the walls to decorate, no fashion shows, no movies, no dance show recitals, no music, shall I go on? Without art, our world sounds like it would be so sad, so boring, and dare I say meaningless. What is the point with nothing new, and exciting, and different to experience. It is our creative impulses that push us to try and be better, be different, try new things, and to challenge ourselves to create something never seen and done before. I, aswell as many people, would not want to live in a world where art does not exist.
Undoubtedly, a great nation does deserve great art. This idea that an amazing place and people deserves some form of art to showcase that, makes sense to me. If something done somewhere by someone is amazing, it deserves to be shared. We share and express feelings and ideas through art. Art is also how we pass down all of these things. We leave our art behind so that it can continue to be told and shared and seen by everyone. There is no reason that we don’t deserve to have our art. So many people puttheir blood, sweat, and tears into things throughout their lives, so yes, we deserve art and whatever we do to be expressed to people.
My experience this semester has been a very positive one. This is my very semester in college, and I am extremely happy that I got to start it, and now almost end it on such a high note. I honeslty learned a lot from this art class, not even just about art either, but life as a whole. Yes, things are not how we expected them to be because of the pandemic, but I do plan to learn from my experience this semester, use what I now know, and take all that with me into future semesters and in general my life in the future.
