From Meaningless To Significant: The True Story of Every Art Form

By Jilams Odigwe

The truth about every work or forms of art is that it must undergo various stages before it can be termed a work of art. Every artwork always starts out as being meaningless, having no message until that work begins to develop and then people gets to have a clearer picture of what is intended to be communicated. Artworks are not only limited to molding or sculptural piece, as drama, dance and music are also works of arts and they all undergo the same initial reaction from people.

The arts refer to the theory and physical expression of creativity found in human societies and cultures. Major constituents of the arts include literature – including poetry, novels and short stories, and epic poetry; performing arts – among them music, dance, and theatre; and visual arts – including drawing, painting, photography, ceramics, and sculpting; architecture – the art of designing and constructing buildings. However, this article does not seek to dwell on any particular classification of arts but to talk about its effect on the people in the society.

Every physical feature on earth whether it is natural or man-made is made to be aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and therefore are all forms or works of arts. However, all art forms do not take shape, immediately the idea was conceived in the mind of the artist, but endured rigorous and painstaking process in which at times, the work had to begin again before it finally got form and the people can now acquire meaning from it. This is the summary of the story of all art form and its journey from meaningless to significant. It must begin with an idea before anything else can happen, but it can only stay in idea mode else that is all it will be; an idea.

Art doesn’t just happen. Whether it’s a simple line drawing or an involved, realistic painting, there is a definite trajectory to the creative process. Beginning with the spark of inspiration and finishing with the completion of a work, this illustrated guide portrays the five stages of creating an art. The five stages which begins with inspiration is about the conception of an idea followed by percolation which involves the refinement of an idea, preparation which is getting everything ready to make the idea a reality, creation which is making the idea happen. The process of creation can vary depending on your personal temperament, your artistic style and your medium and the last stage which is reflection which involves everyone eliciting a different meaning from it.

What man can deduce from this process is quite simple; he is an artist whether he realizes it or not and so he must go all these stages before he can  produce an art work.  This is not limited to just artist, but everyone in his/her field of specialization; a doctor or a lawyer, an engineer or lecturer: your work must be aesthetically pleasing to your “audience” and beautiful.

H must first be able to conceive an idea before he can start working on anything. As Mark Zuckerberg who is the Founder of Facebook and one of the richest men in the world said “Ideas don’t come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them”. This means that whatever a man can conceive in his mind doesn’t have to be complete or perfect, it just have to be conceived. He also further said this “some of the best ideas throughout the company’s evolution have been from places all throughout the company whether it is an engineer or someone on the support team, just different areas of the company”. This means no one lacks idea but everyone has to be bold to believe that what he/she has conceived is achievable. Mark Zuckerberg with that above quote shows that even though he is the face of facebook, its success is entirely dependent on ideas of everyone. It therefore means no one has a monopoly of ideas.

Ideas can also be interpreted as dreams, goals, visions, etc. all these means there must be something conceived in the head or mind, whichever suits the man. Denzel Washington was addressing a class of students said this “Dreams without goals just remains dream and leads to disappointment”.  He also admonished the students to never give up on their dreams. It is noteworthy that people should understand the physchological, physical and emotional drama that artists go through before the ideas they have conceived comes to reality. They go through disappointment, loneliness, depression and so many negative emotions, but in the end they never give up, but were steadfast and convinced on the workability and achievability of their ideas.

Nigerians has been termed to be  intelligent, enterprising and a Land blessed with abundant mineral and human resources, a fact which I agree with all of my heart, but we have fallen short of these attributes in all ramifications, to the extent that ideas and conceptions created makes individuals successful first before pleasure. This is like putting the cart before the horse. These sets of ideas such as dare-devil armed robbery, sophisticated kidnapping may make you successful, but your work is not pleasing to the eyes and even the culprit wouldn’t want to be associated with it even though they did it. We must first put pleasure or aesthetics before success. This is how we know we are affecting life for the better. Actors pass a message first whether it is comical or a life lesson which pleases and satisfies people before they become successful, engineers also please people with their works before they can be successful. Therefore, one must have a work which must please or which lessons could be drawn from it.

This is therefore a call to all Nigerians especially its teeming number of youths to draw from their well of ingenuity and produce creative, innovative and breathtaking ideas that will be productive to the society. The youths should also be like the artist and what Zuckerberg said, it will not be clear at first but that should not deprive them of feeding their ideas with plans until it takes shape. Nigerian youths need to start believing in themselves, because it is already time and the only way we can be taken seriously is if we match words and ideas with actions.

There is the never-ending certainty of discouragement and disappointment, but those are obstacles that are ever-present and ever-ready to push you to new and creative heights. If these challenges are not there, you would not be pushed to create and possibly better your previous achievements.

There is always an idea to create revolution as long as there are human beings who inhabit this world because in my opinion, if idea were finished, I think there would be no wars, famine, natural disasters, incurable and fatal diseases/viruses, etc. ideas have been used to conquer so many of them e.g malaria was a fatal sickness back in the days, people who survived the sickness were very few and it was seen as a “death sentence” but today someone who has a bout of malaria already knows what to get and how to treat it. Therefore, when challenges pushes back at you, be satisfied because it knows it is losing the battle and you will come out on top. This is because if someone pushes at me and he is not a threat, I wouldn’t waste my time by pushing back, I would simply knock him out cold, but I will push back at that individual who is a threat. Challenges sees you as a threat, that is why it pushes back, therefore when it pushes back, don’t give up and its resolve will be weakened as time goes by.

The youths of this present Nigerian generation are the beacon of hope. It is only them that can stop this cycle of ethnicity, sectionalism, religious bigotry and other vices accumulated overtime whether they realized it or not.  It can all end with an idea, a dream, a vision, then add with belief and strong conviction together with focus. Then create plans which are flexible to accommodate the probably “excruciatingly” dynamic environment, but which will not deviate from your goals and pursue with all your heart, with passion and when it is finally achieved, people will see the country and will definitely the work beautiful and pleasing to the eyes.

So what do we say youths; let start getting ideas and remember social or educational status is not a barrier. I went to school and learnt, you learnt on the street, so we can teach each other. Therefore, be an artist and become an achiever thereby turning seemingly meaningless idea to significant forms.

 

Odigwe Jilams from Warri, Delta state

Ji68946@gmail.com  08160274120

 

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