Is Art Still Important?

Ok, this is the first time I ever expressed a shred of emotion into a journal entry, but I felt like my voice just needed to be heard for once. Lately I've been looking through my career choices. My plan so far is to pursue in art and design. Then I learned something interesting: The art industry is highly competitive and oversaturated. There are so many people out there who want to turn their ideas into official artwork and products. This got me thinking about my choices.
I have plenty choices at my disposal, but I wanted to choose art and design. My mom already gave me the talk about how special I am and how I could make a difference. But do you know who else got that talk? Only every other aspiring artist in the world. It's like if you got a "special" invitation to go somewhere, only to find out that everyone else in your neighborhood got the same invitation.
I realized that really there's nothing special about me. Oddly enough I haven't been seeing what I've been doing as a skill, but just a hobby. I could've chosen to do something practical. I could've been a doctor, a soldier, a scientist, or an engineer, but instead I chose to play around with my drawings in hopes that I could make it in a movie or a videogame. Am I a coward for not joining the military? Am I not intelligent for not becoming a scientist?
It doesn't feel practical, it just feels like playtime. I know what art can do for the world. It can influence individuals, but will anyone notice if one less artist leaves? I also know that really I only need to satisfy myself, but I don't know what will satisfy me anymore. It's not innovative, it won't change how we live. It's just entertainment. Something just to look at to pass the time.
While we still have professional artists that influenced history somehow, at this age, noone will notice if a few dozen people drop out of the field. I'm supposed to do what I love, but I feel as though the only way I can love it is if can make some difference.
I could move on to science, but I don't want to do it because I need to.
So the question remains: do we still need art? There are already plenty of artists out there, but have we learned all that we can from it? Can we see it as more than just entertainment? If everyone is special, then who is really? Noone will miss me if I leave, and if I do end up with success, people will dismiss it as just another piece to add to the pile.
Ok. To those who actually bothered to read this, thanks and I would appreciate it if you give me your best answers to my questions. Catch you around

Art is vital. Art to me is the real reason we don't have total chaos. It keeps most of us sane. There doesn't need to be a limit to creatives in the world. Creating is something I believe everyone can do even people who believe they don't have any artistic talent can make something that could be considered art. I don't think art is as objective as some people define it and it's just a label we throw on to things that don't fit the typical 9-5 route.

Art is not, and has never been, important.

(SPOILER)I'm kidding of course. Art is important to many people. Maybe not currently on a revolutionary kind of scale, but art is about expression. And there are so many different forms of art for that expression.

Don't let anyone tell you it isn't important. Even if you art does end up 'just another piece of the pile', so what. Is art important to you? That is what you should be asking. Just do you.

I'd like to think that my M&M homemade cookies are an art form all on their own. People seem to like them, so there must be something in this art lark.

Well, you definitely sound like an artist.

I have plenty choices at my disposal, but I wanted to choose art and design. My mom already gave me the talk about how special I am and how I could make a difference. But do you know who else got that talk? Only every other aspiring artist in the world. It's like if you got a "special" invitation to go somewhere, only to find out that everyone else in your neighborhood got the same invitation.
I realized that really there's nothing special about me. Oddly enough I haven't been seeing what I've been doing as a skill, but just a hobby. I could've chosen to do something practical. I could've been a doctor, a soldier, a scientist, or an engineer, but instead I chose to play around with my drawings in hopes that I could make it in a movie or a videogame. Am I a coward for not joining the military? Am I not intelligent for not becoming a scientist?
It doesn't feel practical, it just feels like playtime. I know what art can do for the world. It can influence individuals, but will anyone notice if one less artist leaves? I also know that really I only need to satisfy myself, but I don't know what will satisfy me anymore. It's not innovative, it won't change how we live. It's just entertainment. Something just to look at to pass the time.
While we still have professional artists that influenced history somehow, at this age, noone will notice if a few dozen people drop out of the field. I'm supposed to do what I love, but I feel as though the only way I can love it is if can make some difference.

There's nothing special about most people. Most people succeed because they work hard to become good at things, not because they were born with it.

If you think you could enjoy art and design, work hard to become good enough at it to make the difference you want to make.

I've seen people go from being "somewhat good at drawing anime and stuff" to making incredibly detailed and beautiful pieces of art in just a few years, but that was because they put everything they had into it.

I struggled with the same thing for many years until I realized that I was writing not because I was trying to make a difference but because I was born with the inherent need to write. It's just what I do, and fighting that because of self-doubts wasn't going to change the fact that it's, well, just what I do.

Then I wrote a novel with this whole spiel as the moral, of course. Because that's also just what I do. :p

Edit: My own experience with the art world is that it's about 95% luck and perseverance, and 5% actual skill :tongue:

You've been brought up in a society, a scholastic system, that makes younger people believe that they are unique, and that they have been blessed with an ability to provide something exhaultant to the world. The truth is that the history of humanity is nothing more than a bunch of middle-people. The handful of people who's name is echoed throughout history is nothing but pure luck. If they hadn't come up with something, or influenced something, somebody else would have. It could have easily been Wallace, but it is infact Darwin that we all learn about today.

If you are lucky enough to have an interest and passion about something, then just do it. If you want to help people - working in a soup kitchen has as much worth as building a house in Africa. It's all relative. You have an interest in the arts and in the creative process. You forget that not everyone possesses that ability. In that sense you are unique. There may be scientists that work in labratories who wish they had the same vision that artists have. Some people can do things that you can't, and vise-versa.

The main thing is to grasp whatever enjoyment you can out of life when you can. Life is mostly a dirge - whenever you have a chance to do something that will give you a sense of personal satisfaction, give it a try.

If humans didn't need entertainment, it simply wouldn't be a part of our life. The fact that entertainment exists, is by evolutionary necessity. Our species decided that they needed downtime and enjoyment in life. Therefore, if through art, you can provide someone with pleasure, a form of entertainment; video games, art, sculpture, then your worth has value because "playtime" is just as pivotal to life as any other venture.

>>> If you are from USA I would not worry, developed countries like USA and Japan are probably the best places in the world to pursue an artistic career. Thats because most of the society`s problems are already solved in those places, and people start to care about other things, like art..:luca:

Final Fantasy is more important than art around here. :bigsmile:

To me art is an integral part of my life and shapes a lot of who I am as a person. I am an artist, I do drawings, digital art, write stories and poems, create my own original characters. Everybody who has seen my work have all said how good I am at what I do. I am very good.
Without art - and to a much larger extent, music, my life would be full of chaos and MUCH MORE stress and bulltrout. I would go crazy in under an hour. So yes, art is very much relevant today and a good outlet for stress and more. I don't feel that I am not special at all. I already know that.
Even if finding originatality seems hard, it is not impossible to find. There are so many un-tapped potential original works that still have to be found. It is up to you to find them and to NOT give up on your dream. I have not.