I never really felt like an artist. Not in the conventional way I’ve viewed one, at least. I was never one of those kids whose finite brush strokes and crosshatches hinted at a natural inclination to fine art. Ask me today to draw any sort of face or life-like replica of something on paper, and I’ll still shudder, anxious at the thought of the mangled blob that will likely result.
The first class I ever took at Southern was Drawing I during SmartStart. As an eager freshman who had recently decided that Graphic Design (along with Public Relations) was something I was interested in pursuing as a career, I was apprehensive on how my abilities would match up to the rest of my peers. As we kicked off our first project, I looked around the room and saw elegant linework and delightfully realistic shapes grace the canvases of my classmates around me.
By the end of that summer semester, it was time to do our self-portraits. Needless to say, after staring at myself in a mirror for over 16 hours and attempting to copy every facial detail, the final portrait produced a very dejected semblance of my face. I remember trying to reassure myself with the reminder that I was studying graphic design, not fine arts. I voiced these thoughts to my professor, and his response was something I’ll never forget. It went something like this: “Just because you’re not a fine arts major doesn’t give you the excuse to lower your standards.”
Those words stuck in my mind even to this day. They’ve motivated me to push myself, no matter how much I may feel like I fall short. But mostly, they’ve helped me learn to create art without constantly fearing I’ll mess up. Learning to embrace my own style of imperfect shapes and lines while always striving to grow and learn from those around me has been crucial to self-improvement.
At the end of the day, we were all created to create. Psalm 139:14 says, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”
Whether it be a cute card on Etsy, an immaculate portrait on canvas, a riveting scientific discovery, or a perfectly calculated tax return, God created us with the purpose of contributing something beautiful and meaningful to this world. What that looks like is just a bit different for each of the 7.53 billion people He created on this earth.
So next time you say to yourself, “Well, I’m just not good at art,” think again. It’s not the artist that makes creativity. It’s creativity that makes the artist.
Image credit: Joseph Hyde