Why We Share our Art*

For the past week I have been busily - sometimes merrily and sometimes choppily - working on painting commissions, and it got me to thinking about why we share our art*. 

Why do we spend days and weeks in a studio with our brushes and our paints and then hang the finished pieces on a beautifully blank white wall for others to see; why do we put our words to pages that will live briefly on shelves in a bookstore, waiting to be taken to a new home, or be read aloud to a room full of people; why do we get up on stage and sing/play a song or 10 that we have written, to a room full of people, some friends and some strangers; why do we spend hours behind a lens and then publish/show the photographs we have taken? I could come up with a bunch more illustrations, but I think we all get the idea here...

Why are we compelled to create and then share our art?  A simple question, but I would imagine there are a multitude of reasons. These are some of the reasons that I came up with today:

• To share something of ourselves - our ideas, our dreams, our vision, our deepest thoughts, our humanity
• To communicate 
• To connect 
• To make our world a little broader, a little wider, a little deeper
• To tell each other who we are 
• To share a moment in time   

So, for me, creating art* is like a conversation. A conversation with an awesomely charming and wonderful friend. A conversation about life, and the world, our places in the world, the dreams we have for our lives, the dreams we dreamed last week, a fragment of poetry remembered, some laughter, stories about childhood, and on and on and on - one of those conversations that goes on all night, punctuated with moments of silence, gazing at the night sky, and then back to the conversation. 

What are the conversations you see in your own artwork? I would truly like to know. . . 

*The word Art is used here in a general way to describe anything that one creates in any medium of choice.

Comments

[Tamara Campbell]

Hi...

I like your album cover...there are lots of whimsical elements for my eye to explore...

I know I create art because I need to...it is my therapy and by doing it, I feel better...but why do I share it?...I didn't for a long time...then I began to feel the need to share it...I think to be understood...to let people see a part of me that can only be seen by looking at my art...I think my art says things that I can't say in words...

[Tamara Campbell]

I thought the seashell-flowers picture was the album cover...ooops...guess I saw the link to the previous entry at the top there...it is the seashell-flowers I was referring to!

Now I am going to go wander around your blog some more!

[Vanessa]

great post- I have been thinking along the same lines lately- mostly questioning what I do, why I am compelled to share it on line and if I didn't do that any more would anyone care what I see in the lense?

(gremlins are at it big time, can you tell?)

I share to make connections and to hopefully help other see things that they may have missed.

[M.a.]

I don't think I've ever commented before, but I enjoy your blog. I didn't notice your etsy shop until today and you have beautiful work.

I don't create much "art" myself, but I have recently been bringing more people's art into my home. I love that great art (defined as art that I really enjoy) revives this 'zest for life' inside of me and invigorates me. It takes all forms and is sometimes different from day to day.

I appreciate people like you who take the time and effort to brighten the world of someone like me. :)

[Shannan]

It took a long long time for me to come out of the closet with my creations and share them with others. But like you said, I became "compelled" to share them.

I think my art is a voice of mine that I have stifled... to keep from being judged or hurt. It has something to say that is sometimes so different than what my ego is saying or doing. Letting her speak has brought the truth of who I am out into the real world, and I feel more integrated because of it.

[leah]

I think I create art because I need to. I need to create. But a big part of the joy for me comes in the conversing, conversing with the art and hopefully the continued conversation the art can have with anyone who sees it.

[kelly]

loving this, the golds and pinks are
perfect.

missing you - bad!

[Swirly]

This is a question that has been on my mind more than usual lately, particularly in my writing. Ultimately, I aim to express something hopeful, but the question of how to do this in the midst of a wide variety of stories has been where I'm currently stuck. It is an interesting dilemma.

[gypsy alex]

It is most certainly a dilemma, as ms Swirly noted. The sense I get is that when i create it is not in the light of sharing. The creation is its own thing. I capture what I see, feel, and in that moment it has nothing to do with sharing... It is only my dialogue with my subject matter. But what I've learned is that with sharing comes the connection and the notion that someone else gets me. it's sublime in that way... sharing comes with confirmation that i exist and have a relationship with the world around me and all beings. xo

[Terri]

How did you get into my mind and then put it so eloquently down on paper? oh and I love your work too! -tj09

[maryse]

well if i'm honest, i share my art as a way to get validation. that if enough people enjoy my photographs then i can call myself a photographer. or if people are moved by my color choices in my crochet or knitting or my designs then i am creative and artistic. and not just a data manager, etc. i'm an extrovert and as an extrovert i look for others to tell me that i'm ok, etc. and sharing my work is a way of getting that. makes me sound kind of pathetic doesn't it. ha!

but i think it's the truth.

[jess gonacha]

oh yes, it's a conversation indeed. i was just sitting in front of a painting last night when my fiancé walked in and asked what i was doing. i said something like "waiting for this painting to tell me what to do next." it really does feel like that's what is happening! what a great topic, liz.

[Amanda]

I love this post. Creating is so much a conversation. Sometimes for me it becomes a bit of an argument or debate too.

[jin]

It was only when I resumed the conversation, having been silent for while, that I realised how necessary it is, and how far-reaching one's sharing of one's art can be, how ultimately rewarding and soul-feeding it is.
I am catching up on all your wonderful words... thank you! xxx

[Pauline G.]

I just love to create! My books express who I am. I have to create something every day, whether it is a chocolate chip cookie or a little note to a friend. Thanks for your input into why we create art.

p.s. I'm in Holly's class too! Yeah hurray!

[Elizabeth Floyd]

Wonderful question. I create art as a means of sharing and expressing in visual terms what I value in life. I think I share my work as a means of reinforcing the sense of visibility with others that have similar values.

Your work is very spirited and full of energy, it makes me think of happy thoughts when viewing it.