Since I was a kid, I have admired the arts and artists. I could never understand what exactly that was which drew me to the arts, and it took decades to realize. This is because most people fail to properly teach or grasp what art really is and represents. Most of them see a painting, and call it art. They are wrong.

If you look it up on Wikipedia, you will be confronted with a wall of vague terms which in the end give in to the conclusion that art can’t be defined. Which is partly true. “To define is to limit” Oscar Wilde once said, after all.

Many believe that art is anything that stirs emotion in you. These emotions depend entirely on your history, your story, basically everything that comes together to make up who you are. Because of this, three different people can experience the same piece of art and have wildly different reactions to it. One person might think it's the most beautiful thing they've ever seen, the second person might hate it, and the third might not feel much of anything at all. And none of them would be wrong!

“Art is a medium of communicating ideas, meaning and emotions by interpretation.” That is another definition that I like. This is because to me, art is indeed a form of communication. Communication that is hidden in layers upon layers that are waiting to be unveiled, untangled, and interpreted. And in that process, generate emotions. This is what art is to me, the process. The process of untangling the layers which unveil a hidden but bigger meaning. That is why ten lyrics of a poem warrant ten pages of analysis. The hidden message itself is not art; it’s the fact that the message is hidden that renders the whole piece as art. And that is the distinction. This thing alone took me years to figure out.

I have been making art for the better part of two decades now. Mostly, I have been doing it as a hobby. I sold very few pieces to collectors who found out about me through common friends, and that is about it. I was a rookie back then, and I consider myself a rookie now. The moment you think you’ve become a master, it’s over. The whole point is to keep learning and relearning, defining and redefining. And just when you think you are at the end, to begin anew.

This is what brought me out of the shadows and into the world of the internet. For the first time in my life, I want to create something not for the eyes of the precious few, but for the regular person. There is no entry level to art. Anyone should be able to participate in it, travel with it, immerse themselves in it. To get lost in it.

For those asking, I don’t plan to get involved with social media. I don’t care about marketing either. I just make art. Or what I think is art. People can judge themselves. For now at least, I shall remain faceless as I have always been. Don’t judge the art by the artist. Judge it yourself.