Recently, I have picked up drawing. I am by no means a natural nor do I have much experience drawing in general. One thing I do, however, is recognize something that I believe needs to be recognized by more people. That is, what you create doesn’t have to be productive for it to be worthwhile. Sometimes I will bust out my little moleskin notebook in the middle of consumer economics and draw. That is not productive, and some may even go as far as to say that it is, in fact, counter-productive. But I’m doing well in that class, and I have lots of ideas coursing through my mind that need to come out onto paper as soon as possible.

In our culture, things that aren’t productive aren’t seen as worth the time. We’re so pushed into things that make money that we don’t take enough time for ourselves. Similarly, if an artist isn’t drawing for the purpose of making money, sometimes they think that they should be focusing on more “important pursuits”, i.e. – making money. I don’t think that monetizing your art is a bad thing, in fact I think that art commissions are a great way to make an income, not to mention that they’re good for artists getting their artwork out there. What I do think is that there should be a dramatic shift in how we view creativity in our society.

For one thing, more people need to realize that you don’t need to be good at something for it to be valuable. I’m an awful singer – I sing off key, I’m quite monotone, and I listen to country quite frequently. That doesn’t mean I don’t love it, though. I’ll hum along and bounce to John Denver down the school hallways any day. Similarly, with drawing, I have only been drawing for about a month and a half, so I don’t have much experience. What I do have is a fantastic time for every stroke of ink on paper. The joy of creation for me doesn’t come from making a fantastic work of art, but rather it is the immersion in the creation process itself that draws me in so much. I have a hard time getting inspiration, so I’ve gathered a few neat techniques to get ideas on what to draw. The first idea I had was music interpretation. In my drawing notebook, the first drawing that I did was modeled off of the song Gold Days by Sparklehorse. Another one I did was Space Song by Beach House. (Pictured below) I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in many medias of art and seeing what comes out on paper.

Another strategy I employ is interpreting dreams. Recently, I asked all of my friends via an Instagram story for their most intense dreams. I got many messages back, all of which have great mind fuel for surreal drawings waiting to happen. I’ve already drawn a couple dreams, fortunately. My favorite is Gazebo (pictured below).

I’ve found that art is something, at least for me, to be treasured. Not for it’s ability to be worth my time in terms of productivity, but to be worth my time in terms of personal fulfillment. For me, every minute I’m creating is a minute I have truly lived.