What I personally love about art is how confrontational it can be. It forces you to come face-to-face with things that might frighten you, anger you, upset you, or even completely destroy you, but yet, at the same time, you can’t seem to look away. It forces you to embrace the confusion and complexities our world has to offer as you eventually realize there are some things that you just can never quite figure out and that’s totally okay – that’s what art is for. It’s so that we can communicate things we simply cannot explain with words, when words just aren’t enough.

Growing up, I had always possessed a sort of hidden adoration for the arts. I tried to conceal it, because I was afraid of it. I was afraid of the power it held, and it intimidated me, because how could I label myself an artist if great painters like Picasso and Van Gogh existed? How could I possibly be in the same broad category as such critically acclaimed and world-renowned artists? I must be mad!

However, over the years, I would find myself dabbling in different forms of art unknowingly, just slightly getting my feet wet even though I was secretly dying to take a deep dive into its ocean. I would write little snippets of poems here and there, create a few sketches for school projects I was assigned, and maybe, on occasion, jot down some short-film ideas. What I hadn’t realized at the time was that I was actually making art nonstop. I’d always find myself coming back to art no matter how hard I tried to stray away from it and to tell myself I wasn’t good enough to be a real “artist”.

Taking this course has forced me to confront art in all of its forms, both the good and the bad, and it’s made me realize that being an artist doesn’t mean I have to be recognized for my work or my talent. It simply means that I am able to express myself in more ways than just one and that I’m brave enough to take on the unknown and create something out of it.