My tennis shoes squeaked on the shining white floors beneath me as I walked into an airy room lined with perfectly straight paintings. I followed my classmates as the teacher announced the rules I’ve heard too many times before: “don't touch anything, keep your hands behind your back, watch your step, and keep quiet.” As our line began to scatter I approached a colorful painting. I examined the mountainous bumps created by the thick paint bulging off the canvas. My face moved closer and closer to the acrylic ridges, blurring my vision. I could feel the heat of the teacher’s eyes tracing my body. I wanted so much to touch the painting and feel the paint squish between my fingers. The teacher's shadow fell over my figure, I backed up and walked away, my hands still tight behind my back.

             I have always felt angst from being in a blank white room staring at a canvas on a wall. Every time I feel the stiff, settled air of a gallery, I ask myself, what is art? Is it really just the square painting on the wall in front of me? The art I experience is different, it’s messy, abstract, unconfined. I can see the beauty highlighted by these paintings within their boundaries, but I want to see beyond those boundaries. I envision paintings breaking their frames, growing legs and escaping the limitations the walls of a gallery provide. If the seal between art in museums and art we see and use everyday could be broken, I can only imagine the opportunities that would arise.

             When we view art in galleries, we miss the messy process of creation. The more I think about this question of art, the more I realize that to me, the beauty of art is in this uncontained process. Once the process is separated from the product it can be applied to anything. I think of math problems as visuals, and research papers as layers in a painting. If I have a blank canvas, with the potential for it to be anything I want, I use it to tell a story, or convey a message. This process has become my way of communicating. I can solve problems, such as the disconnection I and others often feel from issues in our world today. Problems can seem too big for us to realize we can actually make a difference. Information and facts thrown at us can be overwhelming, and don’t always inspire action to be taken. Art is a way to bridge this gap by being informational and inspirational. It can change perspectives and create unfound emotions in a beautiful way. Art is my tooI. I aim to create art that challenges and criticizes the bad in the world, while allowing there to still be hope to make it the best it can be.

             Still, every time I walk into an art gallery I still question myself and am tempted to touch the paintings and splash paint on the bleached walls. This exploration has given me an idea of how I can use my creativity to impact people and the world around me. I can take what I do on a canvas and apply it to an infinite number of things. Beyond high school I intend to explore these ideas to the fullest extent in a place that will encourage my creativity. I want to make art that inspires people and I want to build things that change what people are inspired by. Now, when I ask myself why I feel uneasy in art galleries, it’s not just because I can’t touch the paintings on the walls, it’s because it enforces boundaries upon art and I would one day love to transform them.