Whether it be reading, singing, dancing, etc, there is always something that one can truly enjoy doing. One single or multiple activities that allows a person to take a deep breath and forget about the daily stresses of life. During my time in high school, that such thing was art. Throughout my four years I took classes that focused on painting and printmaking, all allowing me to be able to express my creativeness in a supporting environment.
Now, in all honesty, I was not the best in terms of talent and execution. However, I made up for it in my wild imagination and hark working nature. To me, art was a way in which I could go crazy while staying in the guidelines as much as I could, and be able to show what I was thinking and feeling through a visual media.
As well as being a great outlet for creative thinking, my adventure in art helped me with my fear of social interactions, such as presentations, and improved how I took criticism. During each break in a grading period, we would have to present the assignments we were working on and explain what we were thinking in terms of idea and the process in which we went through. For me, I was terrified of having to stand up in front of a group of people all staring at me, waiting for me to tell them about the art that I had created. I bared through it and I found that after a while it became easier and a little while later, it was second nature. I could stand up and explain as to why I went with this idea and how I incorporated that into my piece. In effect, this experience built up my acceptance of criticism, helping me realize that not all of it was bad. When someone would give a suggestion about what I could do to make a piece more interesting or better, I no longer took it as negative and felt that it meant that my art was bad, but instead I took it as constructive and used it to improve my art.
During my time in these classes, I found that I preferred printmaking over painting. While painting was more blending and light and dark, printmaking (the idea of taking an image and repeating it) allowed me to manipulate the actual paper that I printed on, such as taking different strips of paper and weaving them together and printing on it. Even creating different designs with the way in which I apply the ink.
Through these classes and experiences, I have gained a way to, again, express my creativity and make sure that it will always be burning. I promise that to myself, that I will never let it be extingushed. I have learned ways to improve and just as importantly, understand myself. I know when all that fear or anxiety of life comes to town, all I have to do is take a deep breath, take out my pencil or brush, and begin to create.
