By Gabriella Mercado
I believe the purpose of art is to move people and make them feel their emotions. Whether it be pleasant, sad, or even uncomfortable, art is supposed to move you in a way that every day events don’t usually achieve. As an audience member, you want to believe the characters are truly feeling what they’re saying, or else the experience seems ingenuine. Art’s purpose is to be used as a tool to connect people in various ways.
As an artist, your heart and soul is supposed to go into your work. The powerful emotions that an artist feels need to be communicated through the piece of work, like a painting, a script, or a light design. When your work is put out there to be consumed, you are asking for others to connect with the piece. After the consumer is connected, they are able to take their own thoughts and interpret them alongside the piece of art. This connection is tremendously important because that is what makes art memorable. If someone goes to see a play that made them feel absolutely nothing, chances are they will not remember or talk about that play, which diminishes the chance of them connecting with another person about it.
I think that art is personal to everyone. Different people can use art in different ways, which is part of what makes it so great. One person could use art as their therapy, as they find it healing and constructive to whatever situation they are in. Another person could use it as a hobby to make friends, which goes back to my point about art connecting people in different ways. Art’s purpose is to get to the root of one’s emotion and whatever is produced from that is an expression that can form solid human connections.