Seven Reasons Why Artists Need To Keep Making Art, Part II, by Rachel Simon:

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In this blog post, I'm going to give you three of seven reasons why must keep up your passion for art.  And I mean for every day you have in this world. 

1. Art confronts people with realities they might otherwise ignore.  Let's face it-the world has a lot of miserable realities.  Our country has spent many of the last several years fighting a war in Iraq, a country that many Americans probably still can't find on a map. We're also fighting a war in Afghanistan-but it's a country Americans are better acquainted with, given the huge success of a powerful novel, The Kite Runner.  At the same time, international tensions are rising with government of Iran.  We might think our conflicts are with the whole country, but anyone who has read the remarkable graphic novel Persepolis, or seen the film by the same name, understands that the people of Iran are not the same as the government.  What about our frayed educational system, violent crime, rising health care costs?  It is the work of artists-photojournalists, writers, fine artists, filmmakers-that keep these problems on the public stage. 

2. Art makes the stresses of the world easier for people to tolerate.  As we all know, the world we're in is that it can be a mean-spirited place.  I'm not only talking about global politics.  I'm also talking about driving on the highway or listening to a radio commentator or even going into a drugstore and having a clerk glare at you.  But art gives us the ability to take vacations from this world.  For me that can mean a trip to a new exhibit at the art museum; immersion in a compelling, well-crafted novel or memoir; a stroll through a shop with handmade glass and textiles and jewelry; a slow summer morning spent listening to music I love; or a viewing of an exquisitely written, acted, and directed film.  Art reminds us that there is more to life than short tempers and long grudges.  It helps us transcend the junk.

3. Art makes people feel they are living life in a deeper, richer way.  Maybe not everyone; there are stick-in-the-muds who think it's somehow a sign of personal flaw to allow themselves to get transported by art.  But they are, in my experience, only a small segment of society.  Most people are like you and me-when we come across something artistic that clicks with us, we get enchanted.  This happens to me a lot, but I'll give you one example.  A few winters ago, Pahl Hluchan, a Professor of Animation at the Delaware College of Art and Design, showed me several videos of extraordinary work by Paul Fierlinger, Chris Landreth, and, well, Pahl Hluchan.  I felt as if I'd been ferried to a different dimension, and when I returned to this one, I was so awestruck by the depths of inventiveness and skill I'd just seen that life itself felt like an extraordinary experience.  Francis Bacon put this very nicely when he said, "The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery."

These are three of the Seven Reasons Why You Must Keep Making Art.  The next blog post has the rest.

Rachel Simon, Building a Home with My Husband, memoir, home renovation, Penguin Books