Art and Time

By Julie Pabelick from Ireland.

Every child is an artist. Haven’t you ever noticed them scribbling on walls and everything they see? I don’t know many adults who have that kind of creativity, which is funny because we always think adults are much more intelligent than their children. Actually, I think Picasso is right in saying that artistic talent comes naturally to young people, while adults think too much about what they’re doing. It is also not easy for grown ups to find the time to draw or paint. I know my parents hardly have any time, even though they would love to spend lots of time doing art.

It is important to be creative in life but this is hard when you know about reality. The more you know, the less creative you are, which is why children are so artistic. They imagine their world, instead of living in it. It’s a fun period in a person’s life when they have no cares in the world and no real responsibilities to occupy their mind. It means they have time to think of impossible things such as imaginary stories and creatures. Legends and funny stories fascinate them because they think all that is real. This is why telling bedtime stories helps them dream-they go to sleep thinking of magical things. Adults don’t think of magical things; they think of taxes ad bills and work. This doesn’t encourage creativity.

Creativity is an incredible thing- it’s like knowing a world that doesn’t exist. Children don’t know any world, so they are obviously more creative. They not only have the time but also the energy and are willing to discover. When I was little, I built lots of tree-houses with my friends and we always made each one somehow different to the last – some we painted in bright colors and others we made into strange shapes. It was really fun because we were making our own world, which I loved. Inside, we would pretend to have lots of different lives, like those of famous people or those of people from other cultures. It was really great because we had an amazing time, but now when I go to see those tree houses they are worn down but also, I no longer find it fun to sit up there all day. When my friends and I were younger, we thought we were on real adventures up there and truly believed in them. Now, I know that all that isn’t real, which ruins my creativity. I find it sad that I never took the initiative to write or draw when I was younger, because I might have done something amazing.

Equally, nowadays I find people my age don’t have the motivation to be creative. Everyone is out socializing and using their mobile phones inside of doing art or making sculptures. I don’t consider myself to be a particularly materialistic person but I would much rather hang out with my friends rather than paint a picture. This makes me sad, but it is true. The world evolves as you grow older and people have different interests once they start to discover technology, like computers and tablets and video games. I used to play imaginary games and now I spend my time buying clothes and listening to music. It’s like we outgrow creativity.

However, people my age don’t just spend time having fun. We also study and work hard for school and this is another reason why I think we become less creative as we grow up. Our classes make us understand what the real world is all about and make us more square. When we spend our time learning about maths and science, we don’t know much about art and creativity.

It is sad, but true, that once you grow older, you become less creative. I think it is just the way of life.

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