Be an Art Kid
Fight with your creativity.
A reminder that the annual midsummer creative retreat on the Isles of Curiosity and Wonder starts next week on June 20th. Five days of imagination, creative reflections and music. The retreat is for paid subscribers—thank you as always for helping to bring Creative Fuel to life.
Hello friends,
I went to my local art store yesterday to grab a few things. It was early in the morning, just a few minutes after the store had opened and the staff were just moments into their workday. At the checkout, one of the people working was helping a woman who had come in and placed a half-made poster on the counter. I peeked over her shoulder as I walked out so that I could see what she was working on. The white poster board had a crown drawn on it, with the sketch of a circle with a slash through it that hadn’t been colored in yet. Clearly a sign being made for the No Kings protest. The person working was trying to help the woman figure out the right marker to use.
I don’t know what marker they ended up choosing, but the scene felt like a glimmer of something positive in the midst of an intense week.
Last month, I went to the graduation ceremony for my sister-in-law who had gone back to school and finished her degree. The graduation ceremony was for everyone in the Arts and Humanities department, bachelor’s to PhDs. There were several jokes made that day about what kind of financial security a degree in the arts would lead to. “You graduates are here today because of your support,” said one of the presenters to the crowd of friends and family. “You may be wondering how much longer they’re going to be dependent on that support.”
Chuckle, chuckle. Yes, the arts don’t make us financially rich, we are all well aware.
I scanned through the graduation booklet, which listed all of the various schools and departments of the university. I noticed that that Master’s degrees in things related to computer science and information security were quite popular. I wondered what the students who were graduating with a degree in musical theatre might do with their futures. If money wasn’t in their future, what other kinds of riches might they find? Friends, joy, community, play? I hoped so.
I couldn’t help but think about the success that Cole Escola is having. I haven’t seen Oh, Mary! the dark comedy about First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln that’s become a raging Broadway success, but interviews with Escola (who wrote and stars in the play) keep popping up and it brings me joy every time they do. "I can't believe that my big break came from doing what I wanted to do, like not compromising,” Escola told NPR.
Not everyone is going to win a Tony, but in a world currently consumed by AI, tech overlords, and right wing governments that want to eradicate expression, doesn’t it feel damn good to hear this?
Over the last few years, I’ve done an occasional monthlong stint as a guest teacher at an after-school art program at the local middle school. It’s the same middle school that I had once attended. The last time I taught, I remember being so impressed by how open, tolerant, and supportive the students were of each other. There was room for difference.
Perhaps this was to be expected from what I would call the “Art Kids.” The ones wanting to spend some time after school in their sketchbooks and dreaming up their own worlds.
I wasn’t a full-blown Art Kid in my early days, but I aspired to be one. I spent time in the dark room in middle school, then assorted creative classes in high school. I even convinced my French teacher to let me do my third year of French as an independent study my senior year of high school. Instead of going to language class, I went to the art room and worked with a few other students who had been selected to create the senior mural: an enormous Georgia O'Keeffe flower.
In my mind, the Art Kids were the cool ones. The ones unafraid to speak their mind, unafraid of what consequences might arise if they did. They were the ones taking edgy photos, throwing paint on canvases. They were the ones protesting, they were the ones with pins and buttons taking a stand for a variety of causes.
The Art Kids were the ones starting clubs to protect each other and the environment. They were the weird ones, the off-beat ones, the ones who never felt like they fit in, the ones who never abandoned the creative projects and endeavors that they loved because they already knew those were the exact things that would continue to sustain them.
Art Kids were the ones who saw the world differently.
That still holds. As the world crumbles, artists are often the ones calling things out before others dare, helping to put words and visuals to movements. They are the ones to speak their minds through their creativity. They push progress, envisioning different worlds and ways of being.
Maybe that’s because Art Kids don’t often have a lot to lose. Art Kids are often at the fringes and the edges—of the job market, of financial security, of social expectations. We Art Kids are good at making amazing meals with few ingredients, planting a few candles in empty wine bottles and ensuring that any moment is beautiful. Art Kids are the ones who made buying thrift clothes cool, the ones who dared fly their freak flag.
Culture is not a top-down approach. Culture changes from the ground up. Art Kids know this, and it is what we repeat as a reminder in the dark moments of the night when everything seems impossible and overwhelming.
As we age, it’s easy to pull away from Art Kid energy. Whether we stepped into this identity early or later in life, now there are more conventions to abide by. Rent needs to be paid and there’s retirement to think about. But as a world gets upended, as the income inequality gap widens, as we continue to watch a genocide unfold on a tiny screen that we hold in our hand, as an oppressive government lays down an authoritarian hand to upend families and livelihoods, Art Kid energy rises back up in full force.
Because Art Kids know that they can take their rage and turn it into something more generative.
An artist’s job is to interpret what is happening around us. To feel. To respond.
That can be in direct ways, like art that calls someone to action. But it manifests in more indirect ones too. Books with storylines about what it means to be different, music that moves someone to tears, a poem that manages to capture the essence of being human in a few lines, a painting that offers beauty in the midst of pain, a gathering filled with laughter.
An artist knows that it is hard to look away. An artist understands that they may not have an answer, but they’re not afraid to work at finding one.
And that is exactly what we need right now.
This has less with what you make, and more with who youBe an Art Kid.
-Anna
This piece by
is a reminder of why we need people writing and sharing about their experiences on the ground at protests and beyond.National Day Laborer Network has a collection of gorgeous bandanas designed by artists (including the one above by Halsey Berryman, who also made this piece that I love). You can also donate to their Immigrant Defense Fund.
In Plain Sight: a coalition of 80 artists united to create an artwork dedicated to the abolition of immigrant detention and the United States culture of incarceration.
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“We are far more frequently each other’s shelter and correction, the antidote to solipsism, and so many windows on this world.” - Zadie Smith (thanks to
for featuring this and other excellent words of wisdom from assorted commencement speeches).The Global Artivism conference is looking for proposals. Anything that relates to arts, activism, and social change.
Art Kid energy is well and alive in this campaign by
.Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Questions) mural in LA.
No Kings protest resources from
.
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art teachers = professional art kids
It took me decades to realize I was an art kid. And I hope to never forget. Art kids forever! 🙌