What does it mean to share art?
I currently have minimal friends who create 2D traditional art. Its a personal journey I’m on to find more people who share my interests but that is no the topic of today’s entry. Today I’m curious about the non-creatives in my life. One of the things that I have enjoyed is teaching paint and sip classes. The expectation is that individuals in the class are not artists and that the classes are just for fun. Often in the evening with paintings that may be topical to the area or simplistic. The paintings are not intimidating to the audience of people that don’t usually create art.
But should the art appear so simplistic?
Right now the pieces are created this way so individuals attend the class and feel confident they can enjoy the work they have created. They are designed to limit perfectionist tendencies. But I’m not sure they succeed in it. Most of the artworks I see for these classes are still based too closely in realism I feel. They’re not quite abstract enough to full remove the perfectionist tendencies people lean into when trying something new for the first time. I think that the solution is taking a simple step towards abstraction. A scary suggestion, I know.
Hear me out though: the impressionist are all about implying the subject. I get it, the public may be intimidated by the potential mess up in a more “classical” looking painting but I think those mess ups are easier to ignore in an impressionist paintings. Some classes already offer starry night classes so why not expand the technique to other paintings? It seems easy enough?
But how import is the “creation of art” to the sharing of it. Not every person identifies as an artist but most people enjoy looking at art in one way or another. People hang art on their walls, select furniture based on stylistic interests and often have stylistic preferences in clothing or even phone backgrounds. Art is fundamental to our experiences moving through this world. But do you need to create? Is that necessary to the consumption of art? I think so. I think the need to make and add something creative to this world is important and innately human. I think its scary to say yes I am important and this is something I made here you go, but I don’t think everything needs to be a grand display either. I think that going to this little paint and sip art classes where someone walks you through making something is important. I think taking the time to write a little essay or an entry in a diary is important. Even something as simple as
I was here
its important to note that. And I think especially in the beginnings of generative language models (that for some reason we’ve decided to call A.I. but that is a rant for another day) finding things that are quintessentially human is important. The reason for art is not its perfection, or the best brush stroke or the duplication of reality or even the duplication of another artist. The reason of art is art. It can be fun to share the experience with others or a means of communication and sharing of ideas but it doesn’t need to be. It can be a doodle on a napkin that is only ever seen by the artist that creates it, It doesn’t need to be this grand piece. I think, yes, sharing art can mean pointing to something I made and telling someone else to look at it. But it can also mean sharing in the human experience of making something. And isn’t that just as important?
