Picture this! Against an ebony table lies a blank white page. It calls to the inner-most Spirit. You pause, and set your sights on a box of crayons resting next to it. Deciding to be wild and spontaneous, you pull up a seat, open the box, and start selecting a few of your favorites. You make waves with a blend of Aqua-Green and Turquoise as the sound of the soothing water lapping over the broad, brown shoreline fills your ears. Soon the Crimson sun peering over the ocean begins to reveal itself to you, and the birds flying in a V-Formation in the distant, orange sky arrest your attention. Before you know it, you have created Art, an authentic expression of you.
This is an example of one form of Art. It is by no means, the only. Art is as varied and different as artists, themselves. It can span many mediums from clay to stained glass, to oil painting to watercolors to plain drawing. While you may feel you are not artistic, you are! And if you believe you cannot draw even if your life depended on it, you can. Trust me.
Take a moment and suspend your preconceptions about Art and what you think it requires to create it. Now, just be free, spontaneous but most of all, have fun! You can practice being artistic in simple ways. Remember, Art is not always a picture; it can also take the form of words. Take your name for example. Write it on a blank sheet of paper in BIG BOLD LETTERS which can be colored in. Now taking each letter of your name, begin writing a word which is a quality or characteristic that reflects you. Here is what I mean. Let's take the name Anne as our example.
A N N E
D I I N
O F C L
R T E I
A Y G
B H
L T
E E
N
I
G
If you have trouble, use a thesaurus for some colorful adjectives, adverbs and nouns, but be sure to select words that genuinely describe you. After you have finished with words, use crayons, pencil crayons or felts to color in your letters. If you prefer, you may also color the background with a blend of colors or just use one solid color.
Art gives you the opportunity to spend time with yourself and connect with who you are. It is a therapeutic and relaxing too.
Another fun and spontaneous thing you can do to bring out the artist within, is to put dots randomly on a blank page and just as randomly, connect them using different colored felts or only one solid color --- your choice! If you want, you may use a ruler.
Now, see if you can interpret any kind of picture in your design. Look at every angle, turning the picture upside down, sideways and diagonally. Once I did this and saw lightning on my sheet because the picture had many sharp lines and angles. I had used a ruler which is probably why the lines were so sharply angular.
The two examples I used are forms of Abstract Art. For me it is a fun way to be artistic. Perhaps, it will be for you too. Use your imagination, vivid colors and geometric shapes to create Art. Spontaneity and fun are the keys to unlocking the door of the room where the Artist within you sleeps.
Rohit Lal (Varsha)