Presenting Blog Categories: The Arts

I wouldn’t be who I am today without the influence of various forms of the arts. My blog category The Arts will include random input from this field as it is defined to collect under one umbrella the visual art forms, literature, music, and more.

The Arts in my own life

In my past, there are nearly two decades worth of training in classical music, and today I’m trying to start playing the piano again, at least on an infrequent basis. I’m as avid a reader as I used to be when growing up, but now there is also a dystopia cooking in the back of my mind with a chilling message from a post-apocalyptic, futuristic Helsinki. There’s something magical about stories, and they have taught me a great deal about life.

Apart from these, there are many more examples of cultural experiences I enjoy occasionally, but the ultimate reason for my blogging about them are the documented health benefits related to enjoying the arts in various ways.

The value of arts

When societies cut expenses in times of financial distress, the arts are more often than not among the first to suffer – and my bold claim is that it should not be like this, quite the reverse in fact. The idealist in me unfortunately has to fight with the realist also within, but even though budget cuts are happening on government orders, as individuals we can choose not to down-prioritise our soul food. If we can’t go to the arts, our last resort is to create things ourselves after all, and make them come to us.

During my time as unemployed, I’ve found that a lot of activities are available at discounted prices for many groups in the Finnish society, but rarely if ever for unemployed in particular. This is quite maddening to be honest, and my wish to help this group of members of society however I can is very close to my heart. Sometimes, escaping into artistic endeavours of my own is the only thing that has brought some kind of joy to my everyday life, and that simply isn’t good enough in my humble opinion, because unemployment in itself effectively removes people from a social life.

The arts and other fields

While I would love to be able to say that The Arts as a blog category will remain neatly boxed up, interdisciplinarity ruins my organising efforts quite shamelessly. In the late 2000’s, I became aware of the concept “art meets science” and for now I’ll only mention it as proof of lines becoming increasingly blurred once more. Perhaps we’ll wake up one day to a new era of admired and respected polymaths often hitting the news headlines?

As mainstream pop psychology starts talking about the rise of us introverts, the different ways different brains think, and other topics celebrating the diversity of the mind, I’m sensing an increasing interest in cultivating various interdisciplinary efforts, including the aforementioned art made by scientists in the lab.

How understanding modern forms of art is increasingly important

At all times it isn’t by choice either, but in some case pure necessity dictates we learn a great deal of new things, for instance when deciding to start a small business that mainly operates online. Even when we outsource crucial parts of the process–web design and graphic design– it is vital to have at least a fleeting interest in the visual aspects of our digital home, when creating new content for the website and various social-media profiles. Also, as long as hiring a virtual assistant isn’t an option, the owner needs to create images and other branded materials for the business, which in itself can be quite a learning curve.

You’ve arrived on my website, though, and I’ll do my best to spark an interest in different art forms, both out of the perspective of enjoying them as a viewer and an entrepreneur or freelancer, who must create out of necessity. It is also a nice touch if you’re mostly concerned about personal branding. Go creativity! Your brain will thank you as a bonus.