Art is much more than a hobby

Art isn’t only a hobby, it’s a thing that brings happiness to many people. It inspires them to create something beautiful that they’ll really enjoy.

Guadalupe Estrada, who started drawing around the age of five or seven, says “I feel happy…I’m doing what I like to do.” Guadalupe enjoys the feeling when she draws. “I get to create it myself, I feel like I have accomplished something beautiful.”

However, there are some difficulties that come with art. “The most difficult thing is actually creating your art piece, there are certain shapes that you need to get right, but they are just hard,” Estrada says.

“Art, makes me feel relaxed and confident, because it’s my hobby, it’s all me,” says the fourteen year old inspired street artist, Dorian Galeno. His inspiration is BANKSY, an “anonymous” street artist, “I know I will inspire other people, I will inspire people to not give up.” Dorian already knew, as a kid, that he wanted to be a street artist. “As a kid I saw how cool it was, and I knew later on that everybody was going to ask, ‘How’d you do that?’”

The art teacher at A Place Called Home, Bernyce Tally, said, “By bringing art into a child’s life, it feels like it’s an essential tool to help a student get a leg up on their future career.” Bernyce believes in a student’s potential to create art. No matter how many times they say they can’t do it, she will always be there to say, “Yes, you can.”

Tally said, “Art is my life! It’s like asking me to stop breathing!” So far, everyone is saying that they love creating art, but why? Estrada said because she feels like she creates something beautiful, Galeno said because he wants to inspire people the same way he was inspired, and Bernyce said it was because when she is creating, she feels like she can do anything.

It’s not unusual for a person to start creating something of their own, there are no boundaries for art, whether it’s based on your gender, race, or ethnicity.