Why Do We Make Art?

We admire paintings, music, literature creations but how often do we think about the reasons that motivate the artists to create all those masterpieces? What can those reasons be? And why is art important in general?

1

  • For some artists, an unbearable emotional condition, whether bad or good, can cause the inspiration boost. It is needed to “cry out” all the emotions and feelings, otherwise they can tear you apart and kill.
  • For others, the artwork is a kind of social responsibility. They need to share some values, morals, and the best art to do it is through fine arts.
  • And there are artists that don`t think much about the reasons. They create for the sake of creation, for expressing themselves in a way nobody else can. The reasons are numerous, and not all the artists realize them.

Some of the most popular artists are sharing their impressions, opinions, and replies to this question.

Gina Gibney: Art as a Way to Give Power

Why might one need more power? First of all, Gina believes, people need more power over their own lives. Those are the victims of domestic abuse, people struggling from an endless fight with HIV/AIDS, and similar.

Gina Gibney is the art director of Gina Gibney Dance Company. She believes that people have to pass through many events and experiences that cause fragmentation of feelings and thoughts. Art in her case is an opportunity to bring things together.

Everything starts with fragments, with raw materials that need to be refined, processed, and brought together into a single piece. Then, it helps and communicates, and gives the needed power. This is her understanding of dance creation.

Pablo Picasso: Painting Is Just Another Way of Keeping a Diary

2

This is an important reason to create. In this case, we are talking about painting, but the statement of the famous artist can be used as an art definition in general. Though on canvas by Pablo Picasso cannot be characterized only as a way to document things and events. There is something different about them.

His paintings are the celebration of life itself. Well, let us elaborate here. Have you ever thought about how kids are taught to paint? Until a particular age, they are free in the expression of their life and world vision. At some point, they learn how to paint correctly. What does this “correctly” mean though? He paints as he sees. He paints life. You can have a look at his oil on canvas here https://www.1st-art-gallery.com/, and you will understand what we mean.

Kwame Dawes and Art as an Environment of Empathy

In the opinion of Kwame Dawes, his poems are an attempt to control the world around him. He believes that through his verses, he is adopting the reality that otherwise is difficult to perceive. This is a rather specific art definition and a very unusual one.

In his poems, the Ph.D. poet from Carolina shows the world of empathy, beauty, terror, disgust, and every single detail of which life consists. In his poems, he tries to relieve the reality and return it, thus, liberating himself and creating the world of empathy, where people can not only rise out of themselves but help others to do so.

James Sturm Believes That There Are no Reasons

For a famous cartoonist James Sturm, art is created for no reason. He believes that the word “art” is difficult if not impossible to associate with anything. What is art? Who can classify as art the things he is doing?

Replying to the question “What is art?” is for him like replying to the question “What is nature?” of “What is reality?” For him, reasons don`t matter, just action is important.

Art Is About Being a Human

3

Every artist has his/her own reasons. But one thing is for sure: art is a way to express themselves that is persistent to people only. You might argue that there are even videos of primates and even elephants painting. However, these are the results of long training, not because the animals wanted to express themselves. Have you ever seen primates for example painting in the wild?

If we abstract ourselves from cultural conventions, we will see that art is in the first line about beauty. Artists have created their masterpieces to reflect beauty. Whether it is a beautiful animal, a wonderful woman, an object, an impressive landscape, it doesn`t matter how the artist paints it, everything about the expression of beauty.

There are art pieces that are created as a memory of some events. Like Pablo Picasso told about his art, this is a way to keep a diary. For some people, a diary is in writing poems, for others – painting, and for some – making objects or composing music.

https://text.ru/antiplagiat/5f544a5fe6cfe