Art for Art’s Sake: 5 Ways to Use Art in Your Everyday Life

Artwork by Courtney Mattes.

It can be hard to put feelings into words. It may be one of the reasons why art was so attractive to me as a young kid. I was always TOO wordy or TOO shy and SO sensitive. Being creative in different ways became my outlet and using art as a tool helped me get through some pretty gnarly times.

The thing about art is, you don’t have to be good. It’s how it makes you feel! And it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece you create, it could be something as simple as a doodle. Sometimes in those tiny little lines, you’re releasing something you don’t even know is in the back of your mind.

Here are 5 ways you can use art to make your everyday stress a little less:

1. Try a new art medium!

Sometimes what we’re exposed to isn’t always something we want to use. Every medium has a different feel and if you don’t like the way they feel, chances are you aren’t going to use it.

I suggest going with something loose and freeing like watercolor paints if you don’t want to make anything specific or you’re looking to meditate.

If you’re looking for some resistance and control, go for something like felt tip markers. Sometimes even just the feel of the marker against the paper could be very releasing.

Try oil pastels if you want to go with the flow and focus on movement and pressure. Oil pastels are also really great if you want to use your fingers to blend and have fun with the medium!

Sometimes, if I’m feeling really fancy I’ll do a wax resist and make lines with a wax-based colored pencil or crayon and then watercolor paint over it. It is EXTREMELY satisfying.

If you don’t like drawing or painting, pick up some old magazines and cut or out some pictures, grab a glue stick, and stick some images on paper to create a collage! Make it mixed media and layer on some oil pastels or markers.

Play around with a few different things and really listen to what your body is telling you about the medium. Does your body like the way it feels? Does it evoke some visceral reaction that makes you put it down immediately? Are you “EH” about it? What are you thinking about when you’re doing it? Are you thinking at all? These are all super important questions to ask yourself when you’re picking out what you’re going to make art with.

2. Journal!!!

Make sure you pick out a sketch or watercolor journal that is small enough and easily accessible for you to make art in. I find that if it is readily available to me and a size that isn’t threatening (sometimes too much space can be overwhelming), I am way more inclined to make more things more often.

I personally prefer watercolor journals because the paper is super thick and that allows me to have a lot of freedom with different mediums. Do I feel like using watercolor paints? Do I feel like using oil pastels? Do I want to mix media it? If you know you are only going to use dry materials and not watercolor, maybe just choose a book with smooth and thicker sheets to withstand some perseveration you might have with drawing materials.

3. Write something!

HEY! Remember that sketchbook/journal I just said to get? Write some random words down in it. They don’t even have to be sentences, it doesn’t have to be a poem, it doesn’t have to be a story. It could LITERALLY and FIGURATIVELY be words that don’t even mean anything (or so you think…).

You don’t even need a journal to do this! Sometimes when I’m feeling some kind of way and I don’t have anything available except for my phone, I’ll pull up the notes app and type a quick collection of words. It helps me release some creative buildup and it’s definitely important to get it out instead of keeping it in.

4. Take a picture!

There are some definite upsides to having technology at our fingertips. Were you walking to Penn station after a long day of work and spotted something that made you think, "Wow! That pretty much sums up my day?" Or was it raining and stormy all day outside of the office and suddenly 5 minutes before you leave to go home, the sun comes out and there’s a rainbow? Grab that readily available phone and take a picture.

Reflect on that picture later on in your day. Jot some words down that come to mind when you’re thinking about why you took that picture at that moment and how the picture made you feel. Or don’t jot down anything. Take a few seconds to just breathe and think about the temperance of the photo and how everything is constantly changing. The now of that moment was captured in that photo and how you felt in that moment.

5. PERSONALIZE!

This is my favorite. Sometimes all it takes are some post-it notes and a really great planner to add some creative release. Write some things to yourself on those post-its or draw a little doodle to get you through the week.

Personalizing your space can take you a long way when you have limited ways to express yourself. I always find that if make my space and my “things” visually appealing to ME, it will be WAY more likely that I produce things with the things in the space.

So there you have it! 5 ways you can use art for art’s sake in your everyday lives. Get creative to release that negative build up!

#selfcare #wellbeing #fun #HowTo #art