You are an Art Project

art
/ärt/

1. the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

You are an art project.

The artists were your biological parents. Coming together to create you. Human expression in it's purest form, used to start a new life.

The child is born as a blank canvas, just waiting to have their colors come to life. The loved ones who are caring for them hold the paintbrushes as they will influence the child's infantile mind. The child can't pick the ones who surround them, so you just hope they aren't too heavy handed.

As they paint the mind with all the words they speak and beliefs they hold, the child knows no other way but to accept these ways. The Father, a young man who has never picked up a paint brush before tries to become an artist.

His attempts are weak. Laughable at times. But the father doesn't know, for he is blind to the fact that his influence will shape this child's life. What should be common sense, does not come easy to the father.

The Mother, a young woman with a heart full of colors shows a desire to mold the child like a sculpture. Using her influence to show the child the ways of the world.

Nothing is ever black and white. She doesn't allow the child to get stuck in the gray area, but allows the child to view life with all it's colors. She has never done this before either, yet it comes natural to her.

The child turns into a teenager and begins to see the world from a different perspective. She is still there everyday. Influencing, encouraging, pushing. The child knows no other way when they're with their mother.

The Father is there from time to time. Picking and choosing when he wants to be an influence and when he wants to be his own man. The Father is still stuck in his childish ways. Being easily influenced by the world around him, not realizing that his paintbrush is running dry.

His words to the child carrying less weight with every day that passes without his influence. Luckily for the child, 90% of the child's life has been painted by his mother. And as he grows into a young man, she begins to hand him the paintbrush.

The child is now in college. Old enough to begin to paint their own picture, but still young enough to crave the influence of their father. The child's words to the father fall on deaf ears, as after all these years the father is still stuck in his same mindset.

But now as a young man, he wants to begin to draw what he believes will be a beautiful painting. And now, the father wants to grab a hold the paintbrush.

Father: "What are you going to college for?"
Child: "I want to work in the media. I would love to be a writer. I could see myself working in sports or the news. It all depends where I feel most comfortable when I graduate."
Father: "That's stupid. You should go to school to get a normal job. Be a teacher. Or a nurse. The job you want is just dumb."
Child: "But this is my dream."
Father: (Laughing) "Well you better find a new one."

The young man is silent. Everything he's ever wanted to be in life is being doubted by the man who created him. He asks himself if the father is right. He has no words.

He goes home to tell the mother what has happened. And asks if the doubt raised by his father is true. But she knows what the child's heart has always desired. To be an artist of his own. To create his own future. To be an influence on everyone who's comes in contact with him.

The mother then grabs the industrial sized paint roller and hands it to the young man and says, "Create a masterpiece so beautiful, that nobody can ever put doubt into your mind."

And as the young man grows, he paints his picture with his father's doubt always lingering in his mind. He is everything his father is not, and the proof is in the painting.