My sister Jasmine and I were having a conversation recently about hobbies and art, when she said, “You know, Kristi, I think you should embrace the idea of naïve art more.”
And maybe the name is obvious, but I went ahead and asked her, “What is naïve art?”
In short, it is art developed by people who have taught themselves how to be artists.
And honestly, I love that it has a name and there seems to be a movement for it. It also seems to be where I am going with my life now that I have wrapped up my time in higher education. When I reflect on my relationship with art, there have been a lot of shifts and changes, and I wanted to kind of go through that relationship today.
Art in Childhood
As a child, I loved art. I remember reaching for the crayon box whenever I had free time in second grade, and wanting to impress my art teacher with a comic I drew. I believe he was teaching us how to develop a comic around Christmas time, but I drew a scene of a student getting sent to time out. I probably thought it was funny because at the time, my cousins found it funny when they got me in trouble. So through osmosis, as the artist, I got to make trouble for someone else, which was funny to me.
Hindsight now tells me that isn’t funny anymore, but my art teacher laughed and encouraged me anyway. And I think that is the freedom of being a child and having the ability to freely express myself—that is what I loved so much when it came to art. I remember watching Blue’s Clues, and every time they would write in the handy-dandy notebook, I would color in my coloring book. I could freely have fun with any sort of art supply as a kid.
Art in Middle Grade
But then you get a little older, and things change a little bit. I don’t know if kids start to get meaner, or if this was just when I started to pay more attention to the things other people said. Either way, this is when I can detect myself pulling back on more of the visual arts, such as drawing.
However, I don’t think I really ever let it go completely. I do think that I was good at appreciating art that other people did. I loved to look and admire, and I consumed media constantly. I loved movies and TV shows, and I was always more drawn to the artsy type characters.
And if this time gave me a focus for anything, it was really in this time when I turned my head to focus more on writing. Which I would still call the thing that I can’t let go of, the thing that I ultimately became a professional in. As a writer, I cannot be considered a naïve artist, because I have been professionally trained to the point where I have an MFA in it. So even though I have an MFA in one medium, I am very much naïve to the other art mediums.
Art in High School
I would say that this experience of believing I wasn’t a visual artist continued well into high school, and my love for writing really solidified. With the experience of working on a literary arts magazine, I was able to really fall in love with the publishing process, and further appreciate the visual arts.
Towards the end, I think I developed a desire to learn photography. I would say this kind of coincides with the start of the growth of Instagram, so sometimes I wonder if I actually love photography or if I just loved creating for the internet. Either way, I think this really made me expand the areas in which I played with artistic endeavors.
Young Adulthood-Now
When I first started college, I probably didn’t lean into my creative endeavors as much unless it was writing. What really had me lean into other creative activities was probably joining a sorority. Would it surprise you to hear that sorority girls love a craft?
That was probably when I really started painting, because once I went through the experience of taking a little to mentor, baskets would often be crafted. So I painted canvases, banners, and even baskets, which really got me to lean more into creating. Instagram was also really popping off, and I would say this is when influencers were becoming more common, so I also tried creating for that as well.
As I grew into adulthood and realized that even adults weren’t perfect, I could let myself develop my less perfect art. I think that love of creating has continued since, but I was always grounded by writing.
It’s why I pursued an MFA, and I believe my formal training has actually reinforced the beauty of naïve art. Because if attending graduate school has taught me anything, it is that taste is relative; you have to sit and practice, and constant exposure to something helps. It’s why writers are often advised to read.
Now that I have finished with my collegiate education, I have found more freedom to explore other art forms. Part of that is time, and the other part is that I appreciate Jasmine for just encouraging me. She has Art Academy downloaded on the Nintendo DS, and I’ve also been working through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I’ve also had fun drafting and creating my own planner, and we’ve started to junk journaling together too. The possibilities of artistic experimentation seem endless to me from here.
It’s just been a time to freeing my inner artist of the criticisms of society. And honestly, I think I am happier in my naivety.
What type of art do you enjoy working with/appreciating? Is there something holding you back from being an artist? Can you identify something that is holding you back from your happiness? Let me know in the comments below!
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Love Always,
Kristi My ❤
Kristi My Dao 