Creative art encompasses the entire universe of music, film, creative writing or scripting, creative movement and dance, theater, graphic design, and visual arts.
It primarily deals with expressing yourself either through voice, acting or utilizing a medium like paint and canvas, and it could be anything from painting a picture to writing calligraphy.
There is an age-old debate as to whether creative talent is innately acquired naturally at birth, or whether training and practice can transform those with the interest and drive into expressive virtuosos. Whatever the case, many educational institutions seem to believe the latter; music and art are incorporated in most elementary teaching institutions, as early as kindergarten.
Teen years are overwhelmingly about showcasing or idolizing creative actors – be they film stars or musicians.
Bachelor of Creative arts or Fine arts degrees are conferred by many universities worldwide in music, dance, drama, visual arts or film. The fact remains however that the overwhelming majority of creative artists – like probably you and I – are proponents purely for the love of arts and not for erudition or financial gain.
I still remember in late childhood, the tremendous sense of achievement I felt after playing “Baa, Baa black sheep… “flawlessly (“pecking the piano” with one finger was more like it). The thought that my heroic efforts could have sounded monotonously repetitive to my weary audience never once crossed my mind.
Beethoven – at that time – couldn’t have held a candle to me.
Creative art differs from other academic pursuits in one profound respect; it is repetitive – you cannot paint a replica of Claude Monet’s “Waterlilies”, or play Mozart’s “Moonlight sonata”, without exhaustive repetition to hone your skills. Art, for better or for worse is not about rehashing the theoretical instructions of your teacher. It is about, for lack of a better metaphor, walking the talk – practically. You may not realize it, but you’re actually your own teacher.
Creative art is a visual or audio manifestation of a hitherto abstract concept.
It’s the fruition of imagination.
By mere expression, it fuels and feeds the imagination further – like completing the composition of a nice song, then feeling; “what if I transpose some notes midway? It will sound exquisite!”
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Creative Arts for Kids
Creative art instils in children a spirit of exploration, inquiry and concentration.
You only need to watch a nine months old baby’s face while sticking together some Lego blocks to see what I mean. Creativity plays a critical role in children’s growth as it engages their bodies, minds and senses. With a variety of self – expression modes and thought processes, creative arts invite the kids to imagine, observe, listen, discuss and solve problems using their abilities, skills and knowledge.
The bonus?
These attributes are transferred to other academic fields, language acquisition and interpersonal relations skills. Autistic children or those with cognitive disorders usually have difficulties with words and letters. It is well known that sometimes they communicate better using creative art. A box of crayons may fulfill an expressive need better than pen and paper or voice instructions by rote. Every line, hue or shade is a product of choice, of decision – and is indelibly stamped with the originality of the creator.
It’s a universal truism – whichever culture a child comes from – that kids prefer subjects that showcase their creativity. Given a choice of pen and paper or a scissor with patterned paper, many will choose the scissors and if there is no paper, the table cloth or Grandpa’s evening newspaper will do just fine, Thank you!
Most Common Creative Art Forms
Painting
As a two-dimensional creative art form, a painting is made up of layers of different densities of various pigments. The medium on which the paint was first applied was stone (Palaeolithic age). It has since evolved to papyrus, paper, wood, cloth and canvas. The materials assembled to concoct the paint also transformed from colored earths, to plant extracts, to contemporary synthetic colors.
Painting is considered as one of the few genuine remaining artistic expressions untouched by modern technology. Everything is done by hand and is a true reflection of the painters’ artistic prowess. Contrast this with a Photoshopped portrait or a tone challenged singer aided by Autotune software. For the absolute geniuses, of course, it is also – through auctions – the highest paying form of artistry.
Photography
Photographs are images etched on a light-sensitive material by varying degrees of light exposure levels. This field of creative art has been the fastest developing in technological terms to the extent that the polaroid film – ubiquitous 20 years ago – is now extinct. This attribute is now calling into question it’s claim as an art form since what distinguishes a good from a bad photo has much to do with the equipment than the artist.
With the latest gadgets – including mobile phones – you only need to point and shoot; the device will control the parameters automatically e.g. exposure, resolution, focus, themes and special effects.
And if you make a mistake or want to satisfy your vanity, you can always Photoshop the image after the fact to enhance it artificially. The artist, however, can still revel in his/her choice of subject and angle and environment of the shoot.
Music
This is arguably the most common and popular creative art form among those with half a decent voice. Singing is probably the easiest unless you go for the narrow niche genres like classical or opera.
It is the most amateurish, though.
Therein lies the justification of the argument above; that some creative art talents are inherited or naturally occurring than learned (how many magnificent singers go for voice lessons?). I tend to agree. Instrumentation and songwriting are probably safer bets, though – the field is less crowded – especially if the instrument you’re playing has an exotic name like the ukulele or the shamisen!
You also can venture into the lucrative world of making radio jingles, commercials or sound bed accompaniments.
Film
Of all the creative arts, the celluloid medium is probably the most coveted. Many teen girls dream of achieving the stunning immortality of Marilyn Monroe or Marlon Brando.
Unfortunately for the world citizen, a career in film still heavily depends on which country you reside in. With the exception of the US and India and a handful of European nations, the rest of the world is still pretty much in the formative stages.
