Original illustration by Sara Ellsworth ’21
Northwood is a school dominated by athletics and it is full of hockey and soccer players, ski racers, jumpers and freestylers. To many of the athletes, art isn’t seen as important, and instead seen as “for the weak.” This is probably because of the logic of you don’t have to practice and work out for it, and instead sit in a chair splashing colors on a canvas. But this is not just what art is about. In fact, despite what jocks may think, art is one of the most important things in the world!
Art isn’t just visual works on a piece of paper. Art is also music, performance, and design. Some may argue that cooking can be considered an art as the practice is dubbed Culinary Arts. Therefore, with that in mind, art is everywhere. It’s the music you listen to during workouts, it’s the Northwood logo and your team uniform designs. Art is the food you eat every morning, and art is that horror movie you watched last night with your significant other.
Art is how detectives will find a criminal by description when sketch artists draw a suspect’s face. Art is the graphics and character designs in your favorite video game. Art is the architectural buildings that you see on every block of your hometown. Art is writing. It is your favorite book series, and your favorite poems. Art is the makeup you put on, and the costumes you wear for Halloween. Art is our 3D visuals of a virus or other pathogen, and the cartoony diagrams for things in scientific magazines.
Art is our dreams that our brain painted, and our wackiest thoughts. Art is everywhere, and essential to human existence. To say art isn’t as important In Northwood is like saying oxygen isn’t what we should breathe. One may value their athletic pursuit more, but it’s impossible to deny that without art, we wouldn’t flourish.
