Art - Part 1
Geometric Pattern / In Progress / Yao Cheng
The painting process is unpredictable. It’s openness is the reason why my passion for it is so deep. It’s like stepping into an alternative world where you can create all of the rules. Nothing has to be a certain way, it’s all up to you.
This is also often the most frustrating element of painting, or more broadly, creating anything artistic. The trick is to try and ignore that frustration, even when I’m terrified by it. Still, it truly is a paralyzing thing- to sit in front of a blank sheet of paper and wonder. Will this be great? Or will it just be one of many, many attempts that is not quite there?
After not having picked up a brush in a few months, this is what hovers over my creative mind as I sit down to paint today. But the openness- the reason why I will always be tethered to making art- is what I am reminding myself today. It’s always a new road, and can never be quite the same as the one before. This possibility- it is not a scary thing. It’s a liberating thing. I get to make all of the rules, I do not have to make it into something I think it has to be.
“After all, art is whatever I want it to be.”
This freedom- it is what encourages me to keep pushing through what scares me about making something out of nothing. I get to watch my strokes fly here and there, appearing and unfolding in front of me.
Art is Powerful
I feel the truth of this to my deepest core. Whenever I think about the impact of what art can have, I come back to this phrase.
Like words, it’s a language that is used to communicate an idea or expression. But unlike words, it is an universal language. It has the ability to transcend cultures and continents. For me, art is a visual language that permeates age, continents, statuses. It’s a language that any human can understand just by looking. Its words are my colors and shapes. The commas, periods and indentations are my rhythms.
How amazing it is that I can communicate feelings, ideas and memories through colors, shapes and brush strokes! I love that I can reimagine the intrinsic parts of our daily experience through art. I am forever grateful to this discipline.
