What’s the point of doing art?
In an age of AI art flooding our world, why should you do art?
In short:
Because you want to.
Because you enjoy it.
Because it calms you down.
Because you want to live your gift.
Because it is beautiful to create art.
Because you want to learn a new skill.
Because it helps you process your inner world.
Because AI art often looks the same & you value unique artwork & people!
Now that you got my main take-home messages, you are free to leave ;-).
Or, you might keep on reading & get to know my story & experience around art. Maybe you resonate with some of it, it has been a twisty ride!
I will also share my new workshop idea with you, so if you want to join, read on :-)
My twisted artistic background for you:
I used to think “doing art” needed to have a purpose, not just any, but a really good one.
I was born with artistic genes, a so-called talent & gift for art.
It always came easy to me.
This gift was passed on through my dad.
He was talented in everything: drawing, painting, sculpting, carving, you name it.
However, he could not teach & help me to improve my gift.
In addition, he lived the typical plagued & broken artist archetype, I grew up seeing this daily.
This caused me to refuse seeing myself as an artist, I did not want to be what he lived to be.
I also inherited something else from my dad: a physical disability called ectrodactyly.
This makes our hands and feet have fewer & differently formed fingers.
That was a major problem for him and something that plagues him deeply.
Me, not so much, I don’t mind.
Do you have an natural gift hidden inside of you?
What I heard quite often from him:
“You need to be at least 10x better than everyone else!”
Because I had those different hands. That was his world, not mine.
I also always saw him painting just for the sake of painting, never selling his pieces.
The only purpose for him doing art was to paint; that is what my younger me at least.
This might have been the reason why I refused to paint for the sake of painting. I needed a purpose. Be it a gift for someone else, or a homework. The rest: pointless.
Away from Art, off to Science!
I decided to study biology & forgot about art & my artistic talent for a while.
Though, I always nailed my microscopy drawings or my bachelor or master thesis, also my presentations.
Yet, it was only during my PhD that I realized that Science needs Art.
So I started to illustrate it.
And I decided to become a Scientific Illustrator & start my own company.
This was six years ago.
Now, I’m making a living from creating purposeful art that explains science and shares knowledge.
It is funny, if I think about it: there is no better logical purpose to art than scientific illustrations.
In a way, it is a perfect path that I created for myself.
Only that I realized in the last years: it is not as perfect anymore.
Because I know now, that art does not need to have such a logical purpose.
Art can be made just for the sake of it. For fun, enjoyment, the process… how my dad did it.
Why do you do art? Or why don’t you make art?
Back to Art again
Two years ago I started to paint for myself the very first time. I never did in 30+ years .
I painted hundreds of abstract art paintings, mini paintings. Cos I love small artworks. It was so much, that I had to stack them in my cupboard.
At some point, I started feeling bad for my artworks cos they were made, but impossible to be seen.
And art is also done to be seen & appreciated. So I started sharing them with friends. It was a big deal for me to do that. Shame & imposter syndrome & such ;)
I got more and more confident & this year I even had an exhibition! My first-ever art exhibition!
It was a very big milestone for me!
Another artistic milestone was to paint a painting together with my sister, for our parents. An abstract piece.
I never liked people watching me draw or paint, now, I don’t mind so much.
A shift is happening inside of me, where I start to embrace my artistic gift more and more.
It comes a bit as a surprise, I am still unsure about it, but I will keep on following up on it, because I am curious where it will lead me to.
New artistic venture?
The most recent idea I got was, to offer a workshop to my fellow writing buddies in a Mastermind I am part of.
They seemed interested so I decided to offer a simple workshop for them.
This workshop surely has a purpose too, because I will teach basic artistic skills to others.
But it is more than that.
It is me finally embracing my gift because I accept it, even in front of others, daring to teach it. Without having to be perfect, even though I have a talent.
It is showing up for myself, just as much as for others.
In the next week I will set it up, we will decide on a date & I will also open it up for others to join! Also to you!
It will be a basic workshop on how to sketch from references, organize your drawings, ideas and thoughts. Also some line work explorations & shadow/light aspects.
You can join with pen & paper or any digital tool of your choice.
So if you are interested in this, feel free to sign up for my Newsletter here so you get the specific dates & sign-up forms when all is set!
Love,
Daria