Art

My family is full of artists; my grandmother paints, my mother is an impressive calligrapher and painter, my sister has an incredible skill for drawing, my brother's design portfolio is unbelievable. This is art in the traditional sense, which is absolutely marvelous. I really enjoy being able to appreciate paintings and drawings because of the skill and the artist's intentions for how it can be appreciated. Music and sculpture art are, of course, under the same category. Some of my favorite museum attractions are paintings with subtle meanings that cannot be taken in with only a glimpse. A painting that uses color tones and patterns along with purposeful vagueness and can utilize the observer's ability to feel appreciate the mixing of colors and patterns and internalize them and allow them to relate to the observer's own life. In many ways, music does the same thing with sound. Especially music that has minimal or no lyrics at all. The artist (or composer) uses the sound patterns and pitch to evoke meaning and emotion in the same way that a painter does with color.

One of my very favorite things to do is notice this basic concept in art in various forms of art. How does a chef prepare his/her food in a way that will bring out something personal or emotional in even the slightest degree? I think this way in my work as well, which makes me try to notice it in the work of my colleagues. Because I'm not an artist in the traditional sense, as with my family, I still see my work as art. When I take a language and deconstruct it, then build it back up piece by piece, it is like painting a picture with words, grammar and syntax. I love using etymology, cognates and borrowed words in my art in order to make sense of the language. Understanding the whole picture and relating it to my students and clients in a way that they can internalize and keep as something personal to them. My work might be something hard to see as art, but to me there is no other way to picture it. Even the parts of my job where I have to sit and read book after book, the way that I internalize what I read and organize it in my brain is a form of art that I highly enjoy. It is a process of relating old information with new information and putting in such a way as to be easy to understand and retrieve whenever I might need it.

Though I am not an artist in the traditional sense, I couldn't imagine any part of what I do in any other way. And I think that this is the same for most people actually, whether we are conscious of it or not. At least, if it is something that you enjoy doing or are passionate about. Think about your hobbies; even if it may not seem to be art in the traditional sense I believe that it can easily be perceived as such, which will bring greater satisfaction from the activity in general.