“We need art because through the process of creation, we pour out our bottled thoughts, our worries, our hopes. And in a cathartic release, we can finally confront what we feel, not just what we’re told.” – Chase vs Everything
Some might say that art, or the creation of it, is not a solid contribution to society. We have all heard the common phrase, “Get a real job” or the hesitant “It’s great what you’re doing, but you need to put food on the table and pay the bills.” While these statements do hold some merit (otherwise the label “Starving Artist” wouldn’t exist), seldom do the people saying these things actually realize how common creation is all around them. These are the people we categorize as the doubters, the naysayers, the haters.
A hater may be found in the YouTube comment section or they might be your grandpa, Steve, telling you to follow the rules and play it safe. As they tell you to not follow your dreams and to not express yourself in an outlandish way, they consequently fail to realize just how heavily they rely on the very existence of creation. That keyboard warrior on YouTube? He or she wouldn’t have videos to consume if we didn’t create. Or your grandpa, who listens to music on the radio and watches his favorite shows on TV. All of us humans, haters or not, love to consume the ideas of others.
Imagine your life without Spotify, YouTube, Netflix, Reddit, Instagram, or even a good novel to read once in a while. What would your day be like? The words boring and bleak come to my mind. We create because we need to. We create because life would be so hopelessly bland and bare if we didn’t.
Even if we set the “artistic” or “creative” inventions aside, there’s still that phone in your hand or that computer monitor you’re reading right now. Or the chair you’re sitting in or that light above your head. These objects merely started as ideas in somebody’s head and then that somebody created them. Without this explosion of intuitive self-expression throughout human evolution, we’d still be dragging sticks on the ground and living in caves. Creation, both on an artistic and pragmatic scale, has spurred us along as a species.
Written by Sydney Conrad
Instagram: @sydneyvconrad