Art for Art’s Sake

Sketch of Hanshir? from Harikir (1962) by Tommy

There’s a superpower in art. Those who can draw, paint, write, play an instrument, sing, sculpt—creators of all stripes—seem to have access to a different plane of existence, or maybe it’s just a clearer, deeper sense of this one. I’m not sure. But I do know that they—along with teachers—occupy a special space within the bava pantheon.

So when, over the last year, my youngest threw himself heart and soul into drawing, painting, and sculpting, I got to witness firsthand the sense of purpose that comes with making things. The joy. The spark. The quiet satisfaction that follows the grind of building skills. And selfishly, I get to feed off that energy. His growth inspires me to try and do the same.

I genuinely can’t imagine why anyone would try to persuade a child away from a life in the arts. I’ve been trying to convince my kids to become artists from the beginning. It’s not always easy, because everywhere art is confused with attention—and attention has become the cheapest currency there is. In this increasingly vacuous world, the only antidote to the endless drone around security, money, and hollow spirituality is art. Real art. The kind that isn’t begging to be monetized, packaged, or optimized for engagement.

Could you imagine telling your child to study business instead of art, poetry, or language? In a world where nearly everyone is on the take, performing as feckless content creators, only the bold few still embrace art for art’s sake. We’ve never been richer in tools to create and imagine, yet so many have chosen the path of the beggar—selling their creative souls to the optics of algorithmic success and the commerce of Instagram aesthetics.

But watching my kid lost in a sketch, puzzling through how to shape clay—stubbornly wrestling the world into something new—reminds me that art isn’t dead. It just needs space, encouragement, patience, and people willing to protect it from the machinery that eats meaning.

Maybe that’s the calling. To make art not because it pays off, but because it restores something essential in us. To nurture it in ourselves and in the people we love. To trust that creation, in its purest form, is its own reward.

Art for art’s sake.
Nothing less.