While you may not have gone to arts camp every summer as a teen, there’s no reason you can’t appreciate art all around you. Here are a few awesome ways you can do just that. Art may be a photo or a painting in a frame, a standalone sculpture, a movie, or even the very terrain around you or tattoos on your body (body art). Let’s dive into the wonderful world of everyday art.
Create Art For Your Home
You don’t even have to visit an art exhibit in your area or know how to do landscape design to make some art in your life. Art is subjective and universal, and if something looks pleasant and meaningful to you, well, it is indeed art. Best of all, this sort of everyday art does not even require particular skill or materials to make (though that is an option). There are around 2.1 million professional artists working in the United States today, and whether or not you choose to join their ranks, it’s time for art!
When it comes to everyday art in the home, drawing is a fine place to start. Drawing requires little more than paper, pencils, and an eraser, and you can draw just about anything. When it comes to sketching for everyday art, you can draw inspiration from absolutely anything around you, from odd objects you find in the attic all the way to a fruit tree in your backyard, a neighbor’s dog, interesting clouds in the sky, and more. It will take some practice to make these drawings, but doing so can be quite rewarding, and prove an easy and very affordable way to pass the time. When you’ve got time between work or school or cooking, why not draw the world around you?
Drawing is a fine start, but why stop there? You can also get watercolor sets for cheap, and paint the same sorts of things that you would draw… but with color! Watercolor painting isn’t just for elementary school art classes; many reputable painters and other artists have made watercolors, and put them in exhibits or sold their pieces. Even if your own watercolor work doesn’t end up in a gallery, this everyday art can be fun and rewarding to make. The same can be true for modeling clay, whittling wood (you’ll need specialized knives), sewing, and the like. And whatever kind of everyday art you’re making at home, it can be downright therapeutic, a fine way to soothe anxiety, stress, insomnia, and the like. It’s not a substitute for full-blown mental health services, but it can help, and a psychiatrist might recommend everyday art in the home anyway, for the reasons described above (and possibly more).
Get a Tattoo
Okay, this isn’t for everyone, and some people may reject the idea of getting a tattoo because of their faith or because their place of work won’t allow visible tattoos. Fair enough. But aside from that, it’s not just bikers who can get beautiful tattoos! A skilled tattoo artist can create all sorts of highly detailed and colorful patterns anywhere on the body, and these artists use autoclaves to carefully sterilize their tattoo needles between uses. So, what sort of tattoo should you get, and where? This is up to the individual, but many people get tattoos on their arms (including tattoo sleeves), their chest, their upper back, or even their ankles. Some customers choose to get gentler designs designed to look beautiful, and other patrons want tattoos to give off a tough vibe. Whatever the case, bear in mind that tattoos are a time-honored art around the world, and the very idea dates back a long way. From pre-contact Mexico to Japan to the southern Pacific islands, the world loves tattoos for war markings, beauty, social status, or even marital status.
Invest in Art for the Workplace
Do you manage corporate apartments or run a custom site design company? Or perhaps you are an art consultant? In other cases, you are the client reaching out to such professionals, and you’re going to get a good deal for your troubles. At first, it seems odd to combine dry, mechanical corporate life with free-spirited art; they seem like oil and water. But this is hardly the case! Don’t forget that everyone, from the college student intern to the experienced upper manager, is a human being, and all of humanity is united by a love for art. Everyday art, a well-designed atrium, landscaping, and more can give a business site the right aesthetic to cheer up the employees and impress guests at the same time. No one wants a gray, blocky, drab workplace like in self-deprecating office jokes.,/p>
For one thing, studies have proven that art is not just pleasant to look at; it actually has positive effects on the human body and mind alike. Looking at artworks for a while, such as at an exhibit, will actually lower stress hormone levels, and many surveyed people report feeling more relaxed and less stressed after half an hour or more of viewing art that they like. This ranges from everyday art to expensive and masterful pieces by renowned artists. This positive effect can be harnessed at any place of work, meaning a business client will reach out to a professional art consultant and have their site decorated just right. Regular office space could benefit greatly from some art, not to mention dentist’s offices, libraries, and of course, hotels and motels for a more homely air. Further studies show that having pleasant art in the workplace will make most employees feel more creative and inspired, and of course, any manager would want their employees to have this flexible and inspired mindset. The same effect is achieved with potted plants and creative arrangements of desks and tables, so all of these artful ideas can be used at an office.
Go to Local Arts Events
You made some sketches and watercolor paintings as everyday art in the home. Great! But you don’t have to limit yourself to that. Why not take out the family to a local art exhibit? Often, these events can help promote local up-and-coming artists, and you might see anything from ice sculptures in winter to metal statues made from scrap parts (like a junkyard robot) to piles of tires fused together and painted. There’s no telling what you’ll see, and it is sure to delight and inspire you, especially if you’re looking to launch an amateur art career of your own. Why not look in your town’s newspapers and websites to find out about some upcoming events, and head on over?
Take a Class
No piece of technology will ever fully replace the creative power of painting or sketching or sculpture. Instead, modern computer tech is offering a whole new branch of art, to exist alongside more traditional means. Now in the 21st century, it is far easier for artists (amateurs and masters alike) to share their creations on dedicated forums and websites. Some such websites are truly enormous and may have millions of unique images in them, all of them fine art. Such art can also be a part of your job; today’s information and website marketing industries are huge and still growing, and generate all kinds of jobs that did not even exist just 30 years ago. This is great news for anyone who has skills with both art and computer technology. Graphic design and app design art classes are available at colleges and through other online courses, and some art today is made purely through computers. Many art-based programs prove popular, and some tablet computers come with styluses so an artist can make a professional and beautiful design with entirely digital media. Whether making digital art is just for fun or a legitimate career, it opens up a massive universe of possibilities for artists today. Why not harness that power, and see what you’re capable of making?
Try Your Hand at Landscaping
Let us not forget the original artist: Mother Nature! Most natural plants and animals live for survival rather than for human benefit, but don’t worry; a lot of plant life is very attractive to the human eye. Have you ever seen a blossom tree in spring or a sparkling lake with white sandy shores? Plants are excellent living art, and they provide other benefits too, such as cleaning the air, preventing erosion, and giving insects and birds a place to live and eat. Now, major landscaping jobs are best left to professionals, but you can try out some minor, DIY landscaping jobs, too.
Everyday art may take the form of gardening in your front or back lawn. Do you have a green thumb? Feel free to visit a local nursery and get everything you need, from soil and fertilizer to garden rakes and the very plants themselves. A beginner gardener is urged to get advice from the nursery’s staff, to learn what sort of conditions various plants or trees need to thrive. This may range from how often you water them to how much direct sunlight they need to different soil types (and of course, temperature). Some physical landscaping, such as low brick wall or timber wall, can help frame your garden to look attractive and define its borders. Expect some bumblebees and other insects to take an interest, too. But if you make a home garden, be prepared to set up defenses against hungry wildlife such as rabbits. Try setting up chicken wire or other barriers so your garden doesn’t get devoured.
For a bigger landscaping project, such as for a large lawn or for a business’s front grounds, it is best to hire professional landscapers who have the skills and materials necessary for a job well done. What might they do? They can plant, fertilize, and water grass to make for a thick and rich carpet of grass. Besides that, professional landscapers can also make large gardens with a variety of flowers in them, and arrange them in an aesthetically pleasing way. As for plants, don’t forget trees or shrubs either, which are not only attractive, but double as air filters. Their roots help prevent erosion, and hedges can even act as living fences. Trees, if they are big enough, can shade a building or a house to keep it cooler during summer, and trees can also act as a windbreak so the building is not chilled too much by winter winds. Mulch and bark dust can be scattered by pros to not only look good when they surround a tree or shrub, but help protect the soil. Such materials will block weeds from growing and reduce erosion.
Get Lost in a Movie
Are you a film buff? Don’t worry, you don’t need a huge (and expensive) movie theater at home or rare and priceless film reels to appreciate the art of movies. All movies are art of a sort, and goodness knows they come in a tremendous variety of genres, styles, stories, and more. There is a movie for just about anything, and you don’t have to restrict yourself to the classics, either. Seeing the new summer blockbuster is one thing, but why not scour the depths of the movie industry and find some hidden gems that no one else is talking about? Audio visual technology has limitless potential to send a message and engage your creative mind, and moviemakers have been doing this since the 1900s. And they’re not about to stop now.
Add some everyday art to your life by exploring thought-provoking and meaningful movies, even if they are decades old, obscure, or didn’t rake in millions during their opening weekend at theaters. You just might learn something new about the world, and yourself, when you carefully hunt the movie industry to find movies whose contents will educate you, persuade you with an interesting argument, or explore an aspect of the world that you never thought about before. Movies are not just actors goofing off on set; even cheap or mediocre ones are about something, and if that movie challenges you and provokes thought, congrats! Your mind is about to get a real treat to chew on, and you don’t have to do this alone, either. Gather the entire family for a movie night, and make some snacks if you like. Perhaps everyone can take turns choosing what to watch, though if you have younger children, perhaps some genres or movie types might be off-limits. If you like, you and the family can also have post-movie discussions and even polite debates about what you just watched.