Art is a creative outlet that can help you express things you might not be able to convey through any other means.
Whether you want to sculpt, draw, make music, sing, or dance, picking up a creative outlet can have many benefits. For example, a picture can convey an emotion that you may not know how to put into words. Fashion can help you express yourself through style and juxtaposition of pieces, textures, color, and shapes.
Identifying Your Feelings
UMBC prides itself on being a diverse school. A sense of understanding is needed in a diverse environment. As cultural norms shift in society, we reach a point where sometimes words just aren’t enough. Intersectionality plays a large role in the evolution of problems that need more complex and thought-out solutions. Art can be a way to bridge this gap of understanding for these marginalized intersectional identities. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Break Time
Taking a break can be exponentially beneficial to your daily workflow. A break, in this context, doesn’t mean pausing to use your phone and getting sucked into a content spiral. That will quickly turn your planned five-minute break into a lost hour. However, doodling a quick drawing can be a rewarding way to fill time and decompress from previous engagements.
Here’s a tip: use the calendar app on your phone to reserve time for your breaks. At your scheduled break time, take 15-30 minutes to immerse yourself in your creative outlet. Staying unplugged will offer you a way to fend off eye fatigue and decompress before your next activity.
Functionality
To many, pictures are remembered far greater than words. To test this out, instead of writing down your notes, try drawing doodles next to important information. The idea here is you will have a visual aid to help you recall said information when needed. Our brains tend to make emotional connections to those things that create a strong visual.
You can also use this visual tactic to illustrate a point to an audience. The more avenues you use to both retain information and explain it, the more likely you (and other people) are to remember and understand the information being shared!
Consider giving art a chance and nurturing your inner creative. It may help you in more ways than you can imagine!
Let us know in the comments how you use art to enhance your creative life.