Art is Essential

You need art. We all need art. Art makes life worth living, art makes life better. Especially during these troubled times, art is more important than ever. Art heals. Art is love.

One sunny day, at the height of the pandemic I got a bag of art handed to me from a passing car. And it made my day. It was a prize I’d won in a raffle to raise money for a pottery studio trying to keep their shuttered shop alive through the lockdowns. The car slowed down just enough for a physical distance exchange.

I can’t tell you what a delight it was to receive a brown paper bag containing art! Especially since it'd been months of stay-at-home orders, months of not going out to explore the exterior world.

The things in that bag represented the world and they meant the world to me - all magic creations made by the hands of artists who obviously delighted in shaping, glazing, firing. And there were some beautiful bright prints on paper in the bag as well.

The very next day, while I still revelled in the good feelings from the bagged objets d’art, a book arrived in the snail mail. It’s a book of still life scenes by Toronto artist Anna May Henry (full disclosure: she is my daughter).

Called “Make a Living”, every page presents a dreamscape of images and text that explore the phenomenon of the have and the have nots. One of my favourite works involves a box of reimagined chocolates -

I love art made by people who’ve put their heart and soul into it. In fact, that's my definition of art, or part of it. There are those who make nice shapes or colours on canvas or who add nifty words to clever sentences but until there’s heart and soul, it’s only words and paint.

Heart and soul is also why I like children’s art so much – theirs, of course, is a more innocent variety.

What I see in any adult artist I admire is that they’ve studied and worked at their medium: played at and cried over it, broke their hearts and busted their bank accounts for it, given it up but come back to it time and again. In other words, they’ve invested their souls and laid bare their hearts for the sake of art.

It’s that same constant practice and learning that makes me an artist. At times when I’ve not been able to study and create, I’ve lost the whole sense of it. I’m fortunate that it always returns. But then why wouldn't it? Art is like love - if you take a break from your busy day and constant thoughts and just look or feel all around you, you will discover or rediscover it - because it's always there; we just chase it away with our preconceptions, judgements, opinions and thoughts.

I used to think that people who are unable to explore their creative impulses, well, the joy of creation would leave them forever. But no! It's there - the spark is always there, just waiting to be ignited again.

So: Draw. Make zines. Dance. Press flowers. Create cards. Write songs & poems. Fill tiny bottles with sparkles and magic. Paint a picture. Write a story. Act out a scene from a book. Sing. Shoot a movie. Take a photo.

Do more of the above but always begin anew. Reinvent art, rediscover love.

Art is salvation, art is joy, art is essential. Do your own art. And support your local artists; they’re essential.