Time for Art

I have never been a patient man, even when it comes to art. I rarely seek perfection or professionalism. I used to draw as a child but nothing good ever came from it as I was unable to work on one piece of art for more the twenty or thirty minutes at a time and when I returned to that piece I lacked interest in finishing it. (You see, this post is already taking too long!)

Seeking perfection drove me to insanity! During my high school years and later I tried my hand at writing novels. I lacked patience and harbored a fear of those red 'underlines' that glaringly pointed out my misspellings, mocking me, derailing my train of thought. "Hey stupid! Don't you know how to spell 'there'?" I even tried turning off the monitor when I wrote. No help. Even unseen, the red 'underlines' taunted me! (At this point I have edited this post 15 times!)

Good art, whether writing, drawing, painting, making music, takes time and patience. You cannot fake time and patience. Anyone looking at your art will know whether you care about it of not, whether you spent time bleeding over it, picking it apart and putting it back together. That is the barest minimum you need to create art. It's the first thing people see when they look upon your creation. 'Does this artist care about what he/she is doing? And if not why should I?' Everything after that is skill (which come in time) and talent (which is something you are born with).

Believe it or not, skill and talent are not really that important for the creation of art. It's also the number one reason people use to excuse themselves from creating art. 'I have no talent.' 'I can draw a mean stick figure!' 'I don't have the skills necessary to write like that.'

Think of art like this: it's an extension of your emotions. And, since we all have emotions to one degree or another, we are all artists. The problem lies in the fact that there are so many of us, no one has the time to spend on art created by someone who doesn't care about what they are doing. You have to give people a reason to take time out of their day to enjoy your creations.

-Nosmo King (Look up 'Nosmo King' on youtube.com. I'm not the only one!)