Everyday art

Art for many of us is a lifeline, it’s what make our mundane everyday life’s just that little bit easier to deal with. Good art can let us escape, make us feel things through the art, we might not be able (or allowed to) feel otherwise. Art can be a window to our world from a different perspective than ours. It can broaden our mind, make us think.

But art also has negative connotations. Sometimes we call things, or people “too arty”. This usually means something that we find hard to understand, or we don’t see the purpose of it. And artistic value can be very different to all of us.

I make it my job to make everyday art, not something exclusive that only selected number of people will “get.” Still, my songs will not resonate with everybody, and that’s fine. I have long-lost the desire to try to please everyone, I’ll leave that job for the major labels 😉 But you don’t need a higher education in the arts to enjoy my music, you just have to have lived. Most of my song subjects are something many of us have experienced and can relate to, and this is very important to me. I try to inspire people to realise that no matter what they have gone through, there is life still left at the other end of the tunnel.

I think we need more everyday art in to our lives in all of its forms. Art on the streets of the cities, pages of magazines, in the public transport, parks… Art should not be limited to its performance or exhibition space, it should become integral part of the world around us. And to some extent I have seen this happening already. We see temporary art installations on a side of a derelict building, we see humble sandwich bars turning their sandwiches in to culinary expressions. We see every day people taking pride in creating something magical with limited resources. Colours, sounds, textures flavours, smells, anything to wake up our senses and shake us wake from the half a sleep zone we function in.

Art can make this world a better place, it can connect people from all walks of life. It can tell unspoken stories, that otherwise would not be heard. So let’s support it. Let’s nurture it and let it bloom.

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE