When we think of art, it is common to think of oil paintings on canvas with pretty landscape themes or perhaps portraits painted during the Renaissance of elegant people with porcelain skin and extravagant costumes. Typically, when thinking about art, masterpieces come to mind that only those who were blessed with a great gift and impeccable talent are capable of creating.  

Art also makes us think about our limitations. We clean our hands and leave the job to someone else, apologizing with the excuse, "I’m just not a good artist." Beyond the trauma that someone imposed on us during our childhood by telling us that we would never be good artists, we also stopped being good observers. We use the same criteria that we were judged by when we see someone else's art. Even when we get to see abstract art, we think, "I could have done that," with a condescending attitude. 

As an artist and art educator, this problem is something I commonly see in my students. In a way, when I teach my younger students, it is easier than when I teach adults. The difference is that the little ones do not have limiting prejudices about their abilities. If they say that the doodle they drew is a green horse with skates, it’s best to follow suit. 

There are two reasons why I choose to believe them. The first is because that is what they actually see. Who am I to say otherwise? The process of creativity goes hand in hand with imagination. Technique can be developed over a lifetime, but imagination is a delicate thing that must be nurtured and encouraged. And secondly, it is important to cultivate in them the power to see and think critically. Not with the purpose to criticize, but to see and think about things from different perspectives.

We are used to seeing issues that haunt us from day to day as they are and categorizing them as bad or good, beautiful or ugly and we lack dimension and perspective. My work with adults is much more difficult as I have to convince them that they don't need to be good artists to create or appreciate art. It can be difficult to understand exactly what is considered art and its purpose. And it is even more difficult to connect to something when we do not understand it. 

Like any good observer, we are not naive to what happens around the world. For many of us who have families outside the country, we know the difficulties of our people and communities in distant lands. Similarly, we know the hardships that afflict people of different races than ours, who speak languages ​​that we do not understand, in countries that we may never know. Art can help us feel empathy for the pain of others. It helps us to see life from another perspective and even walk in someone else’s shoes. On the other hand, there is art that transports us to happier times. There is a reason why when we think about art, we think of beautiful things. Art helps us feel good and remember times of joy either visually or by evoking an emotion within us that reminds us that not everything is gray. 

The current world we live in is intertwined with social media. We receive an excessive amount of information, whether good or bad. Art and in particular the art of observation is something that can help us create balance in our daily lives. It acts as a filter that discriminates between what has been so commonly accepted by society. It helps us to appreciate what matters and to extract beauty from earthly things.   

So what is art for? This topic, similar to many other topics in art theory, will never have a concrete answer. For centuries, people have debated the purpose of art, for the artist as well as the public, without reaching any agreement. This is because art is constantly evolving. In a way, it is like the mirror before our society that reflects not only what we live collectively but also individually. So beyond answering this complicated question, this column is dedicated to the "non-artist" who has also forgotten to be a good observer.