Artist Statement:
Art is not an escape for me. It does not relax me. To be perfectly honest, art stresses me out. I worry about each stroke of the paintbrush and how each irreversible mark could be the detriment of my work. Art does, however, stress me out in a way that allows me to grow. When I’m stressed, I know I’m pushing myself. It’s different from the stress I experience in my other AP classes like chemistry, gov, or lit. When I stress about art (which I inexorably always do) the logical left side of my brain takes a break and my creative right side takes over. I get to express emotion through my art, not numbers and essays and facts. And sure, I get scared of what others may think of it, but in the end, I am more concerned with what I will think of it. Which is why I stress. I want everything to be perfect, exactly how I imagined it in my head but at the same time I’m fully prepared to accept mediocrity and work to improve whatever mistakes I made that got me to whatever piece of crap I made. The best part though, is that I keep every single one of my piece of crap artworks, and I’ll look at them years later, and get to see how much I’ve improved since then. So all that stress I put myself under is worth it because the outcome is greater each time. My inspiration comes from my incessant need to satisfy myself. While it is unfortunate when others don’t like what I create, I don’t fret because as long as I am pleased with my work, then that is all that matters to me. Not everyone will love what I create because they may not be able to understand the thoughts and emotions behind it; they are not me. So even if I never pick up another paintbrush again after this year, I will not forget what art has taught me.