Ever since I was a child I was obsessed with art. I had an urge to draw on blank papers, and blank walls. Empty notebooks were full of my drawings. I’d spend hours doodling on my math homework instead of studying. Art was what I was best at. When I told my mom that I wanted to be an artist, she told me that it was a hobby, not a career. It’s a way to past time, and nothing more. The words of the people around me spoiled my vision. It was no longer fun, it was ruined. 

Then I thought of something that my art teacher always said, ‘’Without artists, we’d all be naked, living in a tree.’’ I never understood that before, but now I do.  

In preparing for this article I thought a lot about what an artist really is. I thought, An artist is someone who makes art. Simple enough. Merriam Webster Dictionary defines an artist as, ‘’a person skilled in one of the fine arts.’’ But there’s more to it than that. People may say, ‘’How hard is to draw a picture? Anyone could do that.’’ When you look at it, it does seem easy. But it’s surprisingly terrifying. 

In my AP Studio Art class we are creating a series of artworks called a Sustained Investigation. For this investigation we have to focus on a specific question. We have to make a new art work every week, and they all must fit with our investigation. We have to tell a story. We have to be vulnerable, and open.

  I started wondering why I had to deliver a message through my artwork, who would want to look at it? Why would they care about what I have to say? 

But that’s not the case. 

That’s what makes us all artists. We’re all artists because we all deliver our messages through the things we create. We all have something to say, and art helps us to say it. Art reflects our cultures, our values, and what we believe in. We have an ability to use it to say anything that we want, and what’s more powerful than that? The world would be boring without artists, and we should not take them for granted.