Why it Matters

What is art?

There’s the traditional stuff — painting and sculpture. But here’s what I learned back in the Aughts, when I first ran Garage Art. You can make art out of anything: Recycled milk cartons, cheap sidewalk chalk or the most expensive pastels, or clay or pencil and paper, or string or yarn or fabric, from words or marks — it doesn’t matter. It’s all art.

What does it mean to be creative?

It means being free to think outside the box — to use your mind and your hands and your body as you wish. It means listening to what your intuition is telling you, and being in touch with what your heart says. It means that you are familiar with “the zone,” that place where bliss is yours for the asking, and the hours fly by. It means being a innovator; trying something and then trying another way when the first doesn’t work. And using what you have available. It means that you know how to be alone and be happy. It means allowing yourself to take the right kinds of risks. It also means being willing to jump right in and get messy, and today’s kids are frequently afraid of getting their hands dirty, figuratively and literally.

Why should we care?

Strictly speaking, the world doesn’t need more artists. But when I see the delight on Garage Art kids’ faces — the pleasure and achievement they feel when they present their parents with something beautiful they’ve made with their own hands, and the delight they show when a really hard thing to do becomes something they’ve mastered and can demonstrate — I know why I’m running this program and not running all over the world to research another book.