On Why What You Make Matters

In a desperate moment of creative despair, my friend Ana cried out, “What does it even matter? No one cares about my work! Why should I keep making things when it doesn’t matter?”

I was rendered speechless, stunned into a slack-jawed silence she misconstrued as irritation over her outburst. “I’m sorry for complaining,” she said. “It’s just that if nobody is going to even look at my stuff, why am I making it? I’m not making a difference to anyone, and I feel like I’m wasting my time.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. I held her hand in silence for a few more minutes as I gathered my thoughts.

After reassuring her I did not think she was complaining, but rather saw it as problem-solving, I started talking with her about why what she makes matters, why what any of us make matters.

Art is one of the greatest healers of the spirit, third in line after nature and healthy food. Art comes in as many forms, too. In some ways, creativity is more important than art itself: making things, anything, but especially that which is beautifully aesthetic (to oneself, anyway) and has meaning (even if the meaning is unknowable).

We are human, and one of the things the human species is really good at is creativity. For over 200,000 years, human beings have been making things, and often those things are beautiful or create art. Early bone flutes produced music. People painted cave walls with red ochre to tell a story. Somebody lacquered a box, gilded a letter opener, carved a statue, sewed a quilt. Some of those things have been passed down through history for us to marvel at today. Most were lost and forgotten. But even if we never knew the people who created those things, does that invalidate the joy and creativity they felt at the time? What of the other people who benefitted from what was made or the person who made it?

Creativity is fundamentally human, and thus art is important for humanity. It doesn’t matter how well-recognized we are for making something. We don’t have to become famous for our creativity and our art to matter. All that matters is that we make it. We never know how it will impact another person.

We all deserve art and beauty in this world. We all deserve to be surrounded by beautiful things, whether someone else makes them or we do. What we make matters, not just because it is important to others and for others, but because it is important to ourselves, for us. I create not just because I have a need to create, not just because I have something wordless to say, not only because I have something inside of me that I need to give to the world. I create because I am a part of humanity. I also need art. I, too, need to see beautiful things that I have made and that others have made.

So, make your art. Make it not just because you need to make it, but because you deserve to see it made. You are part of humanity and deserve art in your life. You matter, and what you make matters.