The Importance Of Art

I had a very thought provoking conversation this week about the importance of art. At first blush my reaction was no, art is not important to me.

My original logic was two fold. First I do not create art. I do not paint. I do not draw. I do not sing. I do not play an instrument. I do not dance. I do not act. In short I am not an artist. Secondly, I barely consume art. In the past year I've been to two art exhibits, and took my Grandmother to see a play... and that's pretty much it. Therefore because I do not produce art, and consume so little of it - clearly art is not an important part of my life.

However, while this seems like sound reasoning, I've come to realize that it stems from a faulty premise. I had been narrowly defining art as purely limited to performance activities such as singing, playing musical instruments, dancing, and acting as well as visual arts such as painting, drawing, and sculpting.

But after having this long discussion about what art is, I’ve come to view art as so much more than just these things.

Art is about imagination. Art is about expression. Art is about creation.

I devour news articles, books, and more recently have become obsessed with video tutorials. I may not watch TV but I do watch a lot of downloaded serial dramas and movies. I thoroughly enjoy eating good food and have an admiration for masterminds chefs. I revere talented graphic designers, whose contributions have been absolutely critical to some of the companies I’ve been involved with over the years. I also get high off of ideas - there is almost nothing more exciting than discussing new ideas in my book.

It turns out, I also produce a lot of art.

I do small things all the time like take pictures or make the perfect looping gif.

I spend almost every day coding. In this process I've learned to speak a few computer languages, my favorite of which is Ruby. This is primarily because Ruby makes me happy and allows me to express myself in code the way I want to. While I sometimes call myself a "software engineer', the truth is coding is much more of an art than a science. There are few "truths" or "proofs" in building quality software - only rules of thumb, design patterns, and individual preferences. The more apt description of what I do when I code is that I tell stories. I think deeply about what the user of my app needs to accomplish, and translate that "user story" into something the computer can understand.

I write a lot. This has become one of my primary forms of expression. I propose new ideas, deliberate, lament, piontificate about entire industries, share things I learn, make policy proposals, discuss world affairs and occasionally write vignettes.

There is also a restlessness lurking inside of me. While I accept the world as it is, I am constantly thinking of ways I can change it. Sometimes I think so big, and for such extended periods of time that it starts to hurt. Luckily I have figured out how to snap out of this and take small steps towards my larger visions. These small steps currently are manifesting themselves as side projects, but have turned into a full blown company in the past.

Creation of all kinds can be art. Writing can be art. Coding can be art. Starting companies can be art.

When defined more broadly, art is fundamental to my life. I consume vast quantities of it, I create it all day, and it is what drives me.

As pointed out in this discussion I had about art, I am in fact an artist.

Who knows where this newfound artistic identity will lead me. Maybe I'll just change my answer to the question of whether or not art is important to me. Maybe I'll be inspiried to create even more art than I do now. Or maybe I'll even do something crazy and venture out to the Opera one day!