Of all the creatures in the animal kingdom, humans are the only ones to stop playing as adults. Recently, people have begun to embrace play as adults with coloring books, intramurals and classes for activities such as Tai Chi or Aerobics. Play as an adult allows humans to express stress in a productive manner, while improving another aspect of their life. Coloring can improve dexterity and allow for creativity to blossom while intramurals and community fitness classes improves one’s health and balance. Activities meant to relieve stress or anxiety also require focus and are meant to be fun. Both of these are key, because if the activity isn’t fun the participant won’t be able to focus on the activity and won’t benefit from their time away from obligation.
The Arts and Leisure committee in MUB Board focuses on events involving play and at their recent Creative Canvases event hosted in The Alley, they were incredibly surprised by the turnout of students looking to destress.
“Our last event had around 40 people attend. This event we were expecting close to 40 as well and more than 60 showed up,” beamed Alex Costanza, a second year civil engineering student. The event ended up turning people away because they ran out of canvases. Seating was also quite cramped, but that was most likely due to the unprecedented attendance at the event. Surely, the next event will be better prepared for the number of attendees.
Focus, while finite in nature, can be honed. The less interested in a task or subject one is, the more focus is required to complete a task. An event like this is perfect for those looking to improve their focus. Canvases at the event were small, no larger than six inches long, and allowed those participating in it to focus their artistic energy into a space that allowed for room to grow, but prevented an artist from getting distracted by one feature of their piece.
Art is an abstract word. Many debate about the meaning of art, or about what constitutes art. Due to the nebulous nature of this word, it can mean a plethora of things to many different people. When asked about art, Costanza struggled for words, as everyone would when interrogated about such an arbitrary topic.
“Art is something you enjoy doing… It’s very comforting,” explained Costanzo. The beauty of art is that it can be a dialogue. It sparks a conversation, maintains the attention of one person or many people. Regardless of its audience, there is some processing occurring amongst the group or person that is viewing it. Even if a piece isn’t deemed as art, the beauty of the world of art is that the dialogue can occur. Art pushes people to evaluate and encourages discussion. Much like this event, art is for those of all walks of life. It’s for those who’ve practiced and honed their skills and for those who’ve never seen a brush before in their life. Art promotes personal growth and there’s no limit to that.
