Why Displaying Your Art Matters, Even if Nobody Sees It
Finding meaning and inspiration in your past work by creating your own museum
For the last couple of months, I have been settling into my job at Google and my new apartment in Orlando. Six months later, I finally feel settled in, and I’m ready to revisit my YouTube and art practice. I shared a small watercolor study in my last YouTube video and my art studio makeover, but the one thing we didn’t tackle in that video was the room’s empty white walls.
I don’t know about you, but to me, white walls can be super intimidating, and I was so indecisive about what I should display on them, wondering what artwork I should buy or what art style I wanted the artwork to be. And then it hit me: Ricardo, you have a bunch of artwork you’ve made rotting away in your countless hard drives. Why wouldn’t you use your own art? So, in my latest YouTube video, I decided to dig into my hard drive, excavate some of the past work I’m most proud of, frame it, and hang it on my studio walls.
It was very curious that I didn’t immediately think about my own artwork, and I wondered why, as artists, we are often okay with stashing away our work instead of displaying it. I realized that, sometimes, we feel like it’s pointless to display our art since there’s no audience to enjoy them, or we find ourselves so far removed from the work because our day job is so unrelated we don’t feel like that person anymore. Or, maybe we hide this work because it reminds us of our dreams and aspirations, a potential path we left behind, and we feel disappointed we did not pursue it.
I know I sometimes do, especially with my architecture work from school. It saddens me to think that I am no longer honing that side of my craft and that I could forget many of the skills I once learned to make them. I kept thinking, why did I stop making it? Why did I give up on this dream? Well, in my case, I put that dream on pause to pursue another dream (working at Google), but I’ve been questioning lately whether I need to give up one dream to follow another. Why can’t I pursue both?
There are many reasons why people give up on specific dreams and prioritize others. Life is complex and unpredictable. Sometimes it’s because we lack the self-confidence to see one them through or because certain life events dissuade us from pursuing them. Whatever the reason, it is usually more common than not for people to store away their dreams until the right time comes to bring them out again. The problem is that the “right” time might never come, and your dream may never see the light of day again. Without personifying art too much, I believe that our dreams are, to some extent, stored in our past work, providing glimpses into our past selves’ wants and desires. In this sense, I like to think of our pieces as mementos from a time past or portals into imaginary worlds we once conjured up into tangible objects. There is definitely something cozy and warm about being surrounded by your past work, like a warm embrace from a very old friend.
The truth is that while our dreams remain stored with our works, they never extinguish. We are so connected to our dreams that they find a way to creep into our daily lives, almost like calls or glimpses into new things we could be creating. The thought of them follows us, and the picture of alternative lifestyles and unrealized projects never disappears. And, sometimes, when we least expect it, they find their way out of the corners of our minds and into our everyday lives, reminding us that they’re still very much alive and eager to escape. To me, these unexpected glimpses and visions are what we call “inspiration.”
Inspiration can come from many sources, and I definitely felt inspired as I made my way to Staples to pick up my art prints. The thought of seeing my work printed in large format, a tangible object to hold in my arms, outside of the virtual display of my computer monitor, filled me with anticipation. The feeling reminded me of the final crit days at school when, in the middle of the last-minute adrenaline rush, you get that feeling of amazement and satisfaction as you start to see everything come together while you pin-up. Inspiration can be a new idea or the motivation to pursue a project. However, answering inspiration’s call is up to us, and we can decide whether to acknowledge it or ignore it. Sadly, most often than not, inspiration’s call goes unanswered by many people.
However, when we acknowledge inspiration, it manifests through us into some artifact. Whether a poem, an illustration, an algorithm, or a painting, the output varies. Still, an artifact is usually left behind as evidence that someone answered inspiration’s calling and that someone was paying attention at the right time. I believe these artifacts tell the story of who we are, just like the artifacts left behind by ancient civilizations, which preserve and tell the story of their cultures and people. They are glimpses into who we are, what we love, and who we want to be.
I couldn’t help but think about this while sorting through my past work and deciding what I wanted to hang on my art studio walls. I kept thinking about how much time and effort went into making these pieces, and while some of them come with baggage, a part of me felt sad to realize how much of our past work gets stored away, doomed to live in a hard drive for eternity. With no one to see it, no one to enjoy it. The truth is, I love these pieces, and I’m incredibly proud of them, so the thought of letting them spend the rest of their lives hidden away saddens me.
I mentioned that our art artifacts are like portals into our souls since they hint at our passions and dreams, and it occurred to me, while I was framing my work, that they are essentially gateways into our imagination. There is something so beautiful about the idea that everyone has access to imaginary worlds that live within their minds, unique to each of us. One day, inspiration comes, and we choose whether or not to acknowledge its call, bring a piece of our imagination into the world, and share it with others. How lucky we are when an artist honors inspiration and creates art, giving us a glimpse into worlds and places we will never see ourselves, and equally unfortunate when they decide not to?
There were many reasons I had to pivot away from making art (a conversation for another video), but in the last couple of months, I realized that I did not want to stop making art just because it was not my day job. That is why I started this channel, to create a space where I can make and share my art and revisit the ideas left behind in the artifacts of my past work. The truth is that it’s hard for me to make room for my art when inspiration strikes, especially since I’m equally passionate about the work I do at Google, so finding time to devote to my art becomes challenging.
On the one hand, framing my past work brought this same dichotomy of both joy and sadness. It’s joyous because the artwork exists, I pushed myself to make it, and I now have an artifact to remind me of the worlds I fantasized about back then. At the same time, it saddened me to realize that I could never revisit those worlds. I remember in architecture school, many people would aim to finish or redo their work in the summer to polish it up for their portfolios, but at a certain point, I think it becomes almost impossible to recapture the essence of the work once you’ve moved on. I believe our daily life heavily influences our art, and it’s virtually impossible to recreate the exact conditions and mindsets we were in when revising the work later.
On the other hand, framing my past work and surrounding myself with it has inspired me to restart this passion at my own pace without rushing or pressure. My hope for my latest YouTube video was to inspire and motivate you to frame and display your art if you haven’t yet and to carve out time to pursue that hobby or passion you left behind. The truth is, sometimes, we put too much pressure on ourselves, becoming the main obstacle between our dreams and reality.
Let’s change that; let’s give our art the space it deserves to thrive and exist so that others can benefit from all the wonderful creative gifts we have yet to bring to the world. If anything, having a day job takes the financial pressure away from our art needing to make us money. Maybe one day, your art will be able to provide enough income and become your main focus, but until then, let us enjoy the freedom that we get to make art for the sake of it and not because we have to.
