art, creation

I don't have a great memory so I've forgotten the better part of my early childhood, but the parts I do remember all revolve around art. My earliest memory is of my art class in kindergarten. We had the class once a week and made figures out of Play-Doh- fruits and characters, vegetables and furniture... you name it. My parents enrolled me in weekly art classes when they saw my interest in art, and I haven't stopped since that first step into the studio at the mere age of eight years old.

Like most children, my 'dream job' changed frequently. It started with an artist, then a chef, a baker, a lawyer, an architect, a fashion designer, a tour guide... the list goes on and on. However, I somehow always come back to art. It's the one thing I don't get tired of, the thing that transports me to a worriless peaceful world. Something that does that for someone is without a doubt that person's passion. Now that that's clear, what do I do with this passion? The answer is obvious to most people, follow it!

Nearly all of my friends have been enrolled in some form of art class at some point in their life, from ballet to painting, we've all been there. Drawing is said to help develop patience, and ballet is said to nurture endurance. We're all told to do these things when we're little, to follow ur passion, but the moment we open the door, even by just a sliver, to the grown up world, it's discouraged. We're told to be painters and dancers and musicians when we're young and nothing mattered, but when money, status, and reputation matters, blessings are immediately revoked.

The point of this rant of sorts isn't to blame my parents, they have my best interest at heart and are just advising me based on what they know about artists. They, like many parents, think artists are poor, lonely people looked down upon by the great big eyes of society. I mean, that's where the saying 'starving artist' comes from right? No, the problem isn't them, it's the very structure we're in. The world in which we're supposed to grow and blossom, create and fly limitless is a world biased against creation and growth and flight.

Even now, in the 21st century, art is still seen as secondary to everything else. As science and green dollar bills form the frontier of our species' society, art and creation is pushed further and further back by the minute. More and more people choose to pursue a nine to five job, scared of failure, and less and less people pursue creation, scared of judgement. Art students are seen as 'crazy', defined as ' idealistic', while law students are 'smart' and 'aware'. Designers of fabric and composers of notes are equally as screwed, screwed by the institution that is the structure that the global nation is built upon. One may argue that this is simply the process of natural elimination, that those of importance will survive and those of lesser importance will fade into extinction. But I argue, how can you say art is of lesser importance when it is the fundamental basis of who we are? Art of stones and berry juice date back further than math equations and formulas, and the greatest inventions were first dreamed by creators and artists alike. Lines and shapes, colour and texture are integral parts of every building and object. Sound and movement is the art of everyday life. How can you say art is optional when it is the colour that paints the world on the vast canvas of the barren Earth?

At my public high school, we only need one art credit to graduate, yet we need three math credits. That is a problem in it of itself; our education system is part of the broken global structure. It tells us that the importance of art is a third of the importance of math, and that kind of biased system is just plain unfair.

To this day, I still want to be an artist, a creator. I want to be a designer of fabric and I still dream of having my collection on display at New York Fashion Week. Yet here I am, a fourteen year old artist having to choose between her passion and survival. The system is flawed, broken. I should not have to choose between creating and having enough money for food. Art students across the world should not have to attend art school while fearing that they can't pay back their student loans. Parents should not have to shoulder the responsibility of having to break their child's dreams. It's time for the world to change, even it's playing fields and open its gates to creation. I'm waiting for it. We're all waiting for it.