Lately, one of my favorite things to do has been to watch art tiktoks. Painting and Drawing has always been one of those things I wish I could do but do not seem to have the talent for, so I settle for appreciating the beauty that those who do have this talent create. When it comes to creating any form of art, whether it’s a painting, poetry, or a song- it’s mesmerizing to see just what hours and possibly days of effort and work could create.
The most amazing part of creating any piece of art is usually the beginning. It takes a lot of courage to decide to start working on something without really knowing whether or not it’s going to be appreciated in the long run or if it’s going to collect dust in your storage amongst the other things you’ve created.
An artist is not someone whose art is hanging in museums or whose name in a google search bar automatically brings up a Wikipedia page. An artist is someone who makes art. In the same way, a writer is not a “new york times bestselling author” or someone whose books are lined up on shelves in bookstores and libraries. A writer is someone who writes. It is as simple as that.
Most of the time, the beginning doesn’t make the end look so promising and so it’s easy to decide to just give up. I saw this art tiktok about a week ago where the artist started their painting by dipping the brush in blue paint and drawing a cute smiley face. Soon, the smiley face turned into water, and the water spread out so it was the ocean. Then more colours came into the picture and there was land, trees and even a little person sitting under one of the trees, playing a guitar.
It’s the same with life or it could even be the same as any normal day. You wake up and there’s no telling what’s coming next or what it’s going to be like in the next half hour or two hours. You just move along and hope it’ll be great. Sometimes, it is- sometimes, it’s not but while you can scroll past an art TikTok if your curiosity isn’t fueled enough to wait and see what the artist is doing, you can’t really scroll past your life and you are your own artist. What kind of picture are you going to create and how are you going to start it?
Another thing about a painting is, you have to stare at the painting to really get what it is. If you’re standing in front of an image of the Mona Lisa and you’re too close- at most, all you’ll see is a part of her dress or her fingers, maybe just a couple of strands of hair? And then you’ll be confused because it doesn’t make sense up close.
However, if you take a couple of steps back, you can see that it’s a woman, a really pretty woman and the painting makes a lot more sense because now you’re sure what the image is.
You can’t look at a mess of mashed up, unintelligible colors and brushstrokes to really understand art, you have to see the bigger picture. You have to see the things in life from a different point of view. Instead of looking at just the mess, try to look at the good sides. What exactly have you learned? Has it made you any wiser?
The right perspective and point of view change how we see a lot of things so take a couple of steps back and find out what’s really there.
ADRAINE 