Communication is an Art Form

Maybe you've noticed a lull in posts. So have I. I'm not pleased with it for one major reason: I'm still writing a bunch! I'm just not writing a bunch about art. And I've framed this blog in such a way that I consider it to be an "art blog" and not a general "whatever" blog. That's mainly to refrain from it ever becoming an outlet for gossip or personal details/rants. I don't think the switch I'm wanting to make will violate that. I want to start posting my writing about Communications. 

If you didn't already know, I'm a Sophomore Human Communications Major at Indiana Wesleyan University (that much is available on my public LinkedIn profile, so it doesn't count as private information). That means I LOVE communication studies. I actually want to go into Human Resources (HR), which is one of those "really?" kind of dream jobs, but everything I love about organizational communication and conflict resolution can be found in an HR position! 

Really, I had the idea of shifting this blog over to include communications once I was 11 pages deep into a paper I was writing for fun alongside the actual, required homework I'm assigned regarding similar topics. I suppose I enjoy writing about more than art, and I think it's worthy to be shared. So instead of changing my website's mantra–an "art blog"–I'm just broadening the perspective of what qualifies as "art". I'm saying words count. Here's why:

Practice

As I consider this more and more, communication and art overlap SO much. They are both things that the common person assumes is a "gift" or "talent" but is instead so thoroughly based in conscious practice and improvement. If you don't actively seek understanding of new words, your vocabulary will not grow. In the same way, if you do not seek new methods of art, your range will not grow. Again, if you don't practice using communication tools and strategies, you will not improve. In the same way, if you do not practice drawing or sculpture, you will not improve. Practice makes all the difference in both disciplines. It's not about a natural inclination–though that may give you an initial boost and inspiration to grow–instead, both communication and art are intensely improvable skills. To improve requires practice.

Makes

Communication and art are both creative and constructive disciplines. They can both make up your social identity and allow for self-discovery. The only reason any art works is because it communicates through shape or color or texture or motion (etc.) as it was created to do so. This isn't as niche as people often think it is. A kid drawing something in crayon, for example, is communicating to his parents a multitude of things: perhaps an aptitude for art, an interest in dinosaurs, or a love for his family. If a child entrusts the parent with safeguarding the artwork, maybe he thinks it will be appreciated and his hard work will be validated. Or maybe if he shoves the paper in their direction he's communicating distaste or disapproval of the creation. Every aspect of art is communication from the art to the artist and the artist to the audience. The landscape painter Laurén Gerig agreed with me that no place (and therefore any painting she creates) can be separated from the interactions she has had with people there or surrounding the time of its creation. Human communication therefore informs the vast majority of any art. Only a little bit of it comes from that which we actually observe. Those things we observe only derived any meaning in the first place from communication we have had about them. Impressionism is an extreme example of intensely personal art, inspired by intimate moments, but even Abstractionism can effectively communicate an artist's emotion. Sometimes a white painting is all you need to portray an emptiness, loneliness, or lack of purpose. Sometimes a yellow triangle is all you need to communicate danger. Two lines to reference the Crucifixion.

All this color and shape theory exists for art, and meanwhile there is a whole communications world regarding "Semiotics", which is the study of symbols and their interpretation. Art is symbols. Words are symbols. There is little difference between you drawing a stick figure and me writing the word "stick figure" (except for potential language barriers). They somehow still communicate the same thing. 

Moments

This next bit may risk some reiteration of the creativity in both art and communications, but I think it's worth additionally noting the storytelling power in each. I was talking with a friend the other day and he told me the reason he loves art so much is because he can find stories both in the work and around the work. He can look at a landscape and notice the curves of the hill, but also notice the figure on the hill and wonder who that was to the artist who painted it. Art can capture visual moments, but words can describe them. Recall your favorite work of fiction. Often mine include rich, immensely intricate detail of setting and characters. If you look up "Face Quotes" on Goodreads, for example, the top one is “He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.” (P.G. Wodehouse). An artist could paint that and show viewers one image, but words have the magic of offering a moment up to so much more visual interpretation. No one reader imagines the same image–the same moment, if you will. They could only then share their interpretation through visual communication like painting or drawing or attempt to edit another's through their own description.

I hope these three similarities (though I'm sure I could've found more) are enough to excuse myself for posting henceforth more works about communication that may not include direct reference to visual arts. You see, I titled this post regarding communication as an art form, but as I wrote it, I've determined it's the other way around.

Art is a Communication Form.