Why do we create art?

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. The mind that responds to the intellectual and spiritual values that lie hidden in a poem, a painting, or a piece of music, discovers a spiritual vitality that lifts it above itself, takes it out of itself, and makes it present to itself on a level of being that it did not know it could ever achieve.”

Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

I love art. I’ve always been obsessed with creating and being creative. For as long as I can remember at least. Creative works brings us to life in my opinion.

There are so many forms of art out there. From writing, to painting or drawing, to musical arts to performing arts or even just plain old crafting.

For myself, I create art for myself. It has kept me going through dark times in my life and I truly like to think that there can be beauty in the tough stuff.

Something that I keep in mind while writing, is even though this art form has been around for centuries, is nobody has heard my voice yet. All of my favourite authors have written with their own individual voice.

For example, Amanda Hocking.

She is utterly incredible and I’ve never read another author quite like her before. Her fantasy novels are unreal and I’ve never read someone with a more authentic voice before. I’ve written a blurb about her novels a few months back.

I think that’s the important thing that most authors and creative people need to find when crafting their art- is finding their own unique voice.

I read a post on social media that once stated something along the lines of “If reincarnation is real, I wonder how many times someone has read their own writing or studied their own painting?” And I think about that a lot actually.

In this day and age, especially with AI generated writing techniques- it’s sad to say but nothing is truly original anymore.

That’s why I think creating work from your heart and finding your own inner voice is important when being creative.

I was left a comment on one of my poetry pieces. And it truly meant something to me because of how hard I’ve worked at finding myself in during my writing path. It melted my heart and damn near made me cry.

Thank you Joelle Nanula for inspiring me to finish writing this post which has been in my drafts for way too long. You truly are an Earth Angel and I love reading your work.

So to restate my original question.. why do we create art?

I believe we do it to feel something, to demonstrate our inner most thoughts and feelings.

The quote at the beginning of this post says it all in my opinion.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

Reading and writing are my escapes from the horrors of the real life world and always have been. I’ve been writing little bits of poetry and short stories ever since I was in elementary school.

I think the biggest life lesson I learnt while pursuing my writing was to keep honouring your craft. To keep pushing forward even when things feel tough. Even if you work on something and you think it’s utter garbage, take a step back and reevaluate it later on and you’ll see the masterpiece hiding behind the mess of chaos. I’m not Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, I’m just a mom who loves to read and write and had this passion to inspire people her whole life with stories. I hope that somewhere along the way, I have been successful on my mission.

Thank you for reading this post of mine. I hope it inspired you just a little bit.

Chloe Rose Violet