How you answer may be related to how old you are!
According to an Inc. post, a NASA study found that of 1,600 4- and 5-year-olds, 98 percent scored at "creative genius" level. Five years later, only 30 percent of the same group of children scored at the same level, and again, five years later, only 12 percent. When the same test was administered to adults, it was found that only two percent scored at this genius level.
The study goes on to postulate that our creativity is drained by our education. "As we learn to excel at convergent thinking--or the ability to focus and hone our thoughts--we squash our instinct for divergent, or generative, thought."
Or maybe family and society push the message that art/being creative is "fun" and a "nice "hobby" but it is more important to focus on "real jobs" with more financial security.
That certainly happened in my childhood home.
When my mom passed in 2019 I spent time cleaning out all the things she had saved from my childhood. 99% of my grade school classwork had drawings scribbled in the margins. The doodles weren't very good but they were everywhere.
My middle school papers weren't as "doodly" but I decorated all my text book covers and notebook covers.
By Junior High almost all the drawings were gone.
And they didn't come back until Rob and I left the working world behind to live on a sailboat and I started a travel sketch notebook.
By then I was in my mid-40's.
Recently I spent time with my friend, neighbor, and accomplished encaustic painter Ellen Koment, her husband and well-known sculptor Mario Quilles, Ellen's cousin, abstract painter and co-founder of Artists Talk on Art (the art world’s longest running and most prolific aesthetic discussion series) Doug I. Sheer, and his wife Nora G. Licht who is also an accomplished abstract painter.
What a powerhouse of artists!
Something that struck me is that none of them questioned the importance of making art. It was a given that spending time making art is a worthwhile activity.
When I asked about their upbringing they all were raised in households that valued art--both making art and collecting art.
What a difference in how they see art and life in general.
If you know a young person who shows an interest in art I encourage you to spend some time appreciating art yourself. Read about it, doodle a little, buy original artwork from a local artist(s) and put it in an honored spot in your home to enjoy daily.
I guarantee that young person is watching and learning from you wether or not art is "worth the time".
Spoiler alert–it is. 😊
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