Making Time for Art

Something I love to do and would like to be able to spend more time doing is making art. I came home early from school the other day and painted, and it reminded me what I love so much about the process of creating something. I can lose myself and find myself all at the same time through art. By lose myself, I mean I can be completely absorbed and in the moment, just thinking about what I am making. By find myself, I mean by the time I am done, even if I don’t like what I have made or it’s unfinished, I have learned something about myself.

When I was growing up, I never thought of myself as a creative person. I appreciated art or was forced to by my parents (for which I am now grateful), but I did not get much enjoyment out of being creative. I was extremely critical of myself and my work, and I think that sort of paralyzed me in a way and prevented me from giving creative activities a real shot. I was afraid of failure. Now I realize you can’t really fail at art which is kind of the beauty of it.

As a very young adult I started to really struggle with some emotional problems. I didn’t have many tools to express how I was feeling. Sometimes because of the problems I was having, I had to go to the hospital and while I was there, we would do art therapy. This started me on my artistic journey, which has truly been a huge part of my recovery. I took photography classes and learned how to use photoshop, I started making digital collages, then physical ones, I started drawing and painting. I learned different ways to create and often mixed them together because I found I often couldn’t really do or say what I wanted with just one medium.

Once my mental health started to improve, I noticed I started making less art. I don’t think those two things are directly correlated, I think that once I started functioning better, I started doing more things and had less time to create. Especially now being in school and working, I do not have nearly as much time as I used to for artistic endeavors. However, I also notice when I don’t make time for it at all, my mental health suffers. It really is a very important part of who I am, and if I neglect it other aspects of my life are affected.

In the grand scheme of what is happening in the world, making art might not seem like the most important thing to be doing. But for one, I ought to put myself first and if making art is important to me, then I need to make time for it. In addition, I mean wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all spent more time creating?

Having reflected on this, it seems clear I’ll need to find more time for making art. I also can work on not being hard on myself because I find that it sneaks up on me and I won’t start projects because I’m afraid they won’t go well. Sometimes I kind of buy into this myth about how you can only be creative when the mood strikes you just right. But there are no perfect conditions to being creative, you just have to give it your best shot and jump in.