Why I Make Art

There has never been a time in my life when I didn't make art. As a child, while my sister got a cd player and video games for her birthday, I was given heaps of cheap A.C. Moore art kits. I was always enrolled in art classes outside of my normal school. My mother has always dabbled in art as a hobby, and that has been a large influence on my own artistic development. We always had water colors, or arts and craft supplies in excessive amounts. It was an essential part of my childhood. I still have sketch books from elementary school. My grandmother on my father's side was also an artist, and no doubt encouraged the creative spark in her granddaughter.

So I guess I make art because I never have not made it. It's a simple as that, but I will try to elaborate.

Art is an outlet, and part of how I identify myself. I think in recent years it has become a way to try and understand myself and how I feel about the rest of the world. I have very existential moments in my life, where I feel like I'm looking through a window at everything. I'm not much of a talker, and can keep to myself often. Perhaps it has something to do with being a psychology major, but I love watching other people and how they interact and behave. I don't know if this is directly correlated with my art, but this contemplation is often the motivation for my art. It is not always the theme, but this ideas of isolation, observation, and general confusion seem to appear in most of my work. By general confusion I mean a sort of balance between trying to understand things and being okay with not knowing everything. I have found a lot of peace in my life by accepting that I don't know all of the answers. Understanding everything is not vital to my happiness, just watching, describing and exploring, that's what is important in my life and what is important in my art.

Also, to put it as simply as I can, art is fun. I make art, because I enjoy it, and people do no favors to the world denying themselves what makes them truly happy.