What is art? Some of it is tangible, while some of it is not. It has no limits except creation itself. It is an inward feeling–an emotion–that builds up inside the artist, waiting to burst out. Art is an expression, a method artists use to interpret the world and connect not only to fellow artists but all others. Art creates opportunities. It opens a space where anything goes and any experience is worthwhile.
Art is predominantly about understanding. It is a way for us to understand each other, new cultures, and other ages. In art we are able to try on different experiences, different passions, different beliefs. We learn about our neighbor and our neighboring country. We can better sympathize with them, and can realize that we all are not that different from one another. Art creates unity, a place where we can become one, all desiring the best for the world and discovering more about our individual selves in the process.
Creating art is a holy act: one that gives us the ability to see something from a new perspective; one that allows compassion where there had been only an emotional void. Art is also prayer. The art we experience and react to is us uttering a call that can only be answered by a divine creature. We guess in our art, we attempt, and we mimic, but without the aspect of prayer art goes nowhere.
We love this, this communication that binds us together as one. It allows us to see, to create, to be. These are the things that make art special. We need it. Life without art lacks understanding. It is action with no contemplation; reaction with no expression.
Art is, in its essence, us in our rawest form.
–Zoey Wilson, Senior & Creative Writing Major