Honestly, why do you create art?
Is it a hobby? A way of life? Do you change your techniques, subject matter, composition to make it more saleable? I mean, why do you honestly do it?
In a world of instant gratification, of "likes" and "loves", it seems why an artist creates something gets lost in the filters and followers.
Why do I create? I create to survive.
Not for day to day capital; No, I create for mental survival. I never have a plan when I sit down in my studio/office/room upstairs in my house. I just know whatever vision is in my head, or feeling I have stuck in my chest, has to get out.
Words never worked the way art has for me.
It's my meditation, hours will pass, and I force myself to reflect. Reflect on where I've been, what I've gone through, but more importantly, where I want to be. I reflect on the positive and negative. It has become the mirror I would shy away from. My creations are an extension of me. The story of everything I've experienced in life, in that very moment. All the things I've seen and loved and all the things I've tried to forget.
Art is my truth, everything I have tried to hide from myself. That is what I have found the most liberating over the past year. I never look at it and thought, "how can I make this more saleable?" or "what can I do to make someone buy this?".
Every piece I've created has been made for healing purposes, as corny as that may sound. It has forced me to let go of situations I've had no control over. And in the process of doing that, I have had the ability to connect with complete strangers, who have felt those same emotions, either positive or negative.
That is the craziest part in all of this. When I do sell a piece, it is incredibly bittersweet. In that very instant, I'm releasing that emotion/memory. That moment that brought joy, pain, regret. It is a feeling of coming full circle.
That is why I create.
So why do you?