Sometimes I ask myself why we do art. And I look around me and I see too much emphasis in doing art to change the world, to make a decent living, to inspire others, to save culture, to elevate culture, to gain respect and attention and recognition from others. I see this and I feel like there is too much outward thinking in art.
And I wonder how many of us are still truly looking inwards. Are we still using art as a tool for self-renewal? Or are we sacrificing our well-being and the well-being of those intimately around us for the sake of it? Have we become kinder people because of art or have we sacrificed our responsibility to be good towards others just to create great work?
I think about these questions and I direct them inwards and I remember that even if I feel like I am the best version of myself when I am creating art, I find it easy to neglect the dirty, messy work I need to do within to be truly better towards others - confronting traumas, speaking kinder, cultivating patience - for the sake of art. These are skills that have to be mastered to thrive in the art of living and are not necessarily in the vicinity of art. Time is needed to cultivate them. Time and dedication that we discriminatingly give to doing work, to creating, feeling that artistic prowess is more important than any of these. But is it really?
I feel like the world is already saturated with artists and it doesn’t really need more. What it needs now is more kind people, more patient people, more mindful people, more honest people, more loving people.
And if there is anything truly worthwhile about art, I think, it is that it should help not prevent us to become any of these.