20 June 2025
Everything in my life has led me to this path as an artist. For me, being an artist is not merely a matter of a hobby or a career — it is a chosen destiny I must walk through and a fate I must follow.
I was asked by a fellow mentor of mine, Sands Murray-Wassink, to write about art, how much it means to me and what being an artist entails. There are many ways I can go about this, even in a thousand different directions and meanings. At times, I struggle to put into words how to explain the meaning art brings into my life. There is no doubt that art is my first love, and I fell in love with art before I fell in love with a person or even myself.
Before I continue, what is art?
By definition, art is the expression or application of human creativity in visual form. While by definition art is the expression, for me, art is more than just an expression. Rather more, art is a sort of in-between entity, a medium and a tool that humans can use to express their emotions, passions, desires, interests, opinions, political views and anything possible that needs to be expressed. It is inherent in human nature to express, and humans have a constant need to express. If we have a constant need to express and if art is an expression of human creativity, then would it not be possible that our expressions — such as in the way we speak, the way we dress, the way we interact with one another — are a form of art in themselves?
There is no art without love, and there is no love without art.
Meanwhile, humans are busy judging one another, starting wars against each other and being hateful to others, art loves and embraces. Art never hates or judges; rather, it is the humans who judge the art. Perhaps I have some sort of spiritual relationship with art, as I see art more like a deity that watches over me and protects me. The deity, art, manifests in my mind as I spend most of my waking hours thinking and breathing in art. While I, as the artist, the worker, create the artwork, which is the product. My days are mostly filled with me battling against the chemical imbalance in my brain, such as my intense mood swings of mania or depression or being dragged away by my delusions and hallucinations. When I am creating and expressing in art, my brain becomes still and quiet, and there is serendipity. Art helped me in ways many cannot, and creating art has helped me to slow down my brain and process my pain, my reality and my state of being.
Art taught me virtue, art taught me patience, art taught me acceptance.
For the past few months, I have been struggling with my identity as an artist such as if being an artist is for certain a career I want to pursue for the rest of my life — if this artist life is really for me. For instance, I have been accepted into a second bachelor’s programme in a whole other study, but I know deep within my heart, my soul can never survive without art, without me fulfilling my destiny as an artist. Despite the difficulties artists face, such as myself, there must be perseverance and some sort of resilience needed to survive within the art world. The art world can be seen as a harsh place, but as I said, it is not art that judges — it is the humans who do so. Without art, I will not be whole, and despite any career paths I take, I will always go back to being an artist because art is not just a career, it is my life.
I think that says a lot more than it entails.
Reminder: keep creating what needs to be expressed. As Sands Murray-Wassink once said, “Show up for your art even when nobody does.”
