It was few months ago, and now we came to an end...

As I approach to the end, I learned many skills and knowledge about the topic “Art”. I already had a clue, but as I started researching and writing blogposts, my knowledge and information became wider. “Life without Art is nothing” is a blog that discusses various topics from different points of view. It is a recent blog, which only has four blogposts, talking about how art defines you as a person, how art is not related to creativity, art in war, and art everywhere. The main purpose of this blog is entertainment. As the audience read the blogposts, the main focus is on general information about art and that is a broad topic.

In relation to real life, the blog contained some information that happen in reality, and make people view matters from different aspects. Furthermore, the blog relates to real life by mentioning other articles, such as the war in Syria and how some artists portrayed it by paintings. Moreover, it was not an easy task to complete, because even when the topic broad and has unlimited discussions to talk about, I feel like choosing everything, yet I had to pick one issue or discussion to start with a new blogpost.

I learned new qualities that I could apply later in my academic and career life. The way to convey ideas and present them, grabbing the audience’s attention, and making the audience consider the topic were the major skills that I learned. On the other hand, there are few struggles that encountered, but I took them as challenges and overcame them. Writing a blog is a new source of entertainment for me now, and I support the idea of blogs instead of just essays in a composition class, because it makes the students interested in the class more.

If they can feel it... why don't you feel it?

            Through art, many messages can be delivered. Art is not all about happiness and positive sides of life, it is about hope, pain, love, grief, and many ups and down that would be fictional or real. A false concept that many people follow is that art is only to be displayed in exhibitions and published online for personal use. On the other hand, art can really touch the people’s hearts and change their thoughts. In the article “The Art of Syrian Refugees Sends a Message. Is Anyone Listening?” some readers would look at the article and feel like changing something, and others would not find the article igniting their interests or touching their hearts. The question is “Would war paintings reach to people from different regions and takes them to make a move due what is happening in Syria?”

            Due to the struggle millions of Syrians have and still going through, few men after moving to the Zaatari camp in Jordan started painting that they remember from the war in Syria. One Syrian man, who was called “Mohammed Al-Ammari” painted one of the Syrian war evidences that portray the tough times that do not leave the people for a second. By interviewing him, he mentioned that "There was no money. There was nowhere to work, nothing to do to support myself and my family," he says. "It felt like all the life stopped." The lack of work opportunities in al Zaatari camp made this poor man have more passion towards sad paintings. The paintings are basically propaganda to the world, to see what is really happening, since many people keep saying everything is peaceful everywhere.

            Media is affecting the world and shaping the people’s mind based on what benefits them and based on their views. According to Paul Gough, a professor in RMIT University, where he asked “Why send artists to the battlefield when a camera could capture the face of conflict so much more convincingly than a painter with a canvas and brushes?” Not everything published on a newspaper or viewed on the TV means it is right, while the paintings those men created are delivering a message, because every painting has a meaning and expresses something that a person might not be able to express in words. Some people would look at the war paintings and feel that there is a story behind this sad art.

            The paintings people created from the war are not recent. There is a history of paintings during the war, and it started a long time ago. The BBC published an article “Art from Different Fronts of World War One.” The article contained several ideas about the western front and the gas attack. The paintings were painted by John Singer Sargent, who portrayed a painting of depicting soldier suffering from effect of mustard gas. The message of this artist delivered even after hundreds of years, and people now know the truth.

            In conclusion, war paintings can deliver a message and make people hear what some people are suffering from. Even though the paintings would not affect people, but some might deliver a small hints of what those sad people are facing every day from lack of shelter, food, clothes, and freedom.

             

What does art say about you?

People grow up in different environments, different situations, and different atmospheres. This reflects their personalities and their way of interacting with others, as well as different kinds of art. It is important to know what type of art reflects you, because you may have an undiscovered skill that you would express yourself through. Thursday morning, An interview was held in Virginia Commonwealth University with one of the professors, about how to know what kind of art reflects people’s personality

Me: Good morning!

Professor: Goodmorrning!

Introduced what is the purpose of the interview is, and started the conversation about how does different kinds of art reflect every person’s personalities.

Me: How many years have you been teaching in an art university?

Professor: 15 years

Me: From your long experience, how can you define art?

Professor: Art is free expression of oneself, deception of life, and visual communication

Me: Do you think art can really reflect you as a person?

Professor: Yes, it can definitely do, because there are many characteristics within each person’s personality.

Me: What are the characteristics that share both the artistic aspect and other aspects of life?

Professor: Preferring to walk indoors or outdoors, working alone or being collaborate, being intrigued with ideas or results, and creating things with hands or machines can say many things about you.

Me: How can someone figure it out?

Professor: Ask yourself questions, are you messy or clean? Are you realistic or conceptual? What are you inspired by? Or are you independent, free spirit, or problem solver?

Me: Can you give me one example?

Professor: A person might prefer to like outdoors, being collaborate, working in 3D, create things with hands, and considers himself as a realistic person can reflect his personality as expressive by nature and enjoy the different forms of  communication. Another thing can portrays his personality is that he has a strong sense of composition and aesthetic skills.

Me: Do you think everybody has an artistic side or just some people?

Professor: Everybody has an artistic side, because some people like music, others like sculpturing or drawing, and some might like photography. It is about how every person looks at life from their own perspective. We all have a creative skill that we did not find out yet. People need to discover themselves.

Me: Is it important to know how art reflects your personality?

Professor: Yes, it is important, because art is a form of entertainment, and everybody needs to have fun and make changed in their life every now and then.

Every person should express theirselves in a certain way, whether in photography, music, dance, or drawing. The reason why people need to figure what does art say about them, is because it might change their life, and make them look at it from a different perspective by discovering unique and creative qualities of theirs.

Art is not related to Creativity

Many people would say that “I am not creative…I cannot do anything related to art.” It is a false concept that people follow or have it in mind. Melanie Rothschild, a self-taught artist that for over two decades her functional pieces have been sold in galleries and stores across the U.S. stated, “Sometimes it has nothing at all to do with art. Creativity is about how we think, the possibilities we allow into our thinking and our ability to follow through with action. In just about anything we do, we can think creatively.” I believe that if somebody wants something, they can go for it and have it. People have the capabilities of doing many things that is the reason why no one should be frustrated about not being able to do a certain thing. It is all about practicing and doing the thing you love. In addition, art does not know whether a person comes from a high class, middle class, or low class family. A person might come from a high class family, and have all the abilities to buy several of art supplements, but might not be as good as a person who comes from a low class family. Every person has his own abilities, discover yours!

Art is Everywhere!

Hello everyone, and welcome to my Blog. I hope you will enjoy the creative and artistic articles that I will start posting soon. The reason why I chose the name of my blog as "Life without art is nothing" is because, if you look around you, you will find that every place or thing that your eye falls on contains art. The signboards that we pass by them everyday, that we have never realized contain art, the chair that we sit on contains art, the doors, the ceiling, and even the floor. I also believe that writing and talking about art is an unlimited topic that I would write about and express my feelings through from different perspectives. Another reason why I decided to publish things about art in specific, is that it is something I am interested in and I talk about on daily basis. 

Let the artistic blast begin!!!