How art and creativity have become human culture
Abbie Riglin, Photo Editor
For human beings, art and creativity have become a cornerstone of survival, allowing us to have activities in our lives that do not revolve around our basic needs. Without it, we’d suffer from a lack of culture. In other words, we’d be all work and no play, resulting in a dull life with no music, laughter, imagination, or storytelling.
Personally, writing has acted as my escape since I was young. I’ve always been a storyteller, and although I like to think my stories make more sense now, it helped me work through emotions I could not understand.
“Writing helps people manage their negative emotions in a productive way, and painting or drawing helps people express trauma or experiences that they find too difficult to put into words,” says Ashley Stahl, a career coach, in an article with Forbes Magazine.
For a long time, it was easier using words to describe how my characters were feeling rather than myself and I see it now as a way to project myself onto something that could take the attention off my own emotions, but it helped. I could get lost in a world and re-enter my own with a fresh mind, free of worries.
In the Liberty Journal ran by Liberty University, Kaitlyn Skarstein says, “having a creative outlet helps you deal with anxiety and stress, gives you a sense of purpose, and helps make space to overcome obstacles. We all have stress, but it’s what you do with that stress that matters.”
This is especially true with students. It’s easy to get caught up in schoolwork where your creative outlets might overlap or be forgotten about. But finding time to be creative for your own benefit is sure to not only reduce the stress from work and school, it also ensures that you are recharged for more to come. By resetting your drive, you are guaranteed your best results.
But it’s not just about the creative outlets you’re good at. Over the 21 years of my life, I’ve had more hobbies than I care to admit, from crocheting to a short-lived juggling act. Not all of them have stuck, but they did offer a moment of relief, and maybe a weird party trick.
Even now, I’ve found peace through music and painting nights where I find myself being able to relax in something that might never be anything more than fun. I might be far from an artist, maybe even a creative mind is a stretch, but as a human being, the creation of something imaginative comes easy, even if it doesn’t last.
Creativity doesn’t belong to just one person and isn’t only a great outlet for myself, it can be a great tool for others too. There’s always something fun to discover and always another outlet to explore.
