Ortiz 1

Valeria Ortiz
Fogelson
Composition
29 February 2016

The Presence of Art

All children are born as artists. Us, out of everybody in the world, are the ones more
adept towards creating unique people and situations unlike any that have been explored before.
On a psychological level, it makes sense: young children are less likely to be influenced by the
social constructs of society. They do not feel the pressure or the potential embarrassment that
might come from singing a song in public or painting a mural on the walls of their bedrooms. All
they feel is the overwhelming urge and desire to create, to release, to express the overwhelming
torrent of sensations and sounds that they keep locked up inside them. I know this because I was
once a child too.
My childhood was not as carefree as that of some of my peers. My parents were
Colombian immigrants who made the difficult decision to leave their entire lives behind in order
to move to the United States, in the hopes that they would secure a brighter future for their two
twin daughters. We were never poor growing up, but we always lived with the nagging fear that
we wouldnt be able to make a good living here within the country. Yet, no matter how busy or
tired my parents were, they always took the time to read and draw with us. They are primarily
the reason why I have fostered such a love for art. As time went on, I began to create art in full
force. I began to read read not one, not two, but three books on a weekly basis. I would write
millions of little stories, with their own little heros and happy endings. I would draw and paint

Ortiz 2
what to the untrained eye seemed simply nonsensical images, but to me were actually scores of
beautiful fauna, dashing characters and mythical creatures that all happened to co-exist in the
vast world that I called my mind. Now, I realize that I was no Picasso. My skill with the
paintbrush was sub-par at best, and I never won any awards. Still , it was never my artistic skill
that truly mattered; it was the effort and the excitement that I had that truly made a difference.
There was one instance in the first grade that will forever resonate with me. At the time, I
couldnt really speak English well and the only true friend I had was my twin sister. I was a shy
little girl who didnt really know how to integrate herself into such a big, strange world. Because
of my insecurities, I despised doing anything that would place me right at the center of attention.
I didn't want to be singled out or noticed for being different. Anytime I was scrutinized like that,
the encounter would simply leave me short of breath, my heart pounding and my head
swimming. I would feel like a small fly caught in the sticky web of an unforgiving spider. Yet
everyday, at exactly 11:35 in the morning, I would seemingly jump dimensions and enter one of
my most favorite galaxies: art class. See, in art class, you never had to string words together. All
you had to do was grab your pencils and your paintbrushes and fully immerse yourself into the
canvas. I had found companions in my instruments, companions that were accepting of me,
despite my differences. The canvases never looked at me strangely. The pencils never whispered
about me behind my back. The paint didnt ignore me. I had found my niche and I couldnt have
been happier. One day in class, I found myself drawing a picture of a green meadow. It was
nothing special; just a small expanse of greens and yellows that I mixed together under a light
blue sky. As I was furiously scribbling, I felt somebody lightly tap my shoulder. I whipped
around, and I saw a girl standing in front of me. She was short and had the most vibrant and
unruly head of hair I had ever seen on anybody before. It took me a while to remember that her

Ortiz 3
name was Emily; all I could focus on was her crazy hair. Emily motioned towards my meadow
and asked, Thats yours right?. I gave her a slight nod. Her eyes lit up and she began to speak
extremely fast. I couldnt understand most of what she was saying but I did catch the words
pretty and talented. Seeing that I wasn't really responding, she sat herself down and grabbed
my paintbrush. Startled, I just watched in surprise as she dipped the brush into a pot of bright
pink paint. She gave me a lovely smile and went on to draw a crude drawing of two little girls
holding hands. I slowly understood what she meant and a burst of happiness and shock bloomed
in my chest. Amazingly, at that moment, I had managed to form a lasting relationship, all
because of the simple picture that I had created. If there was ever a moment where I was faced
with the unifying powers of art, it was at that moment, when I had made a friend for the very first
time.
As I started growing and maturing into the woman I have grown to become, I never once
forgot that memory. How could I, when the evidence of that encounter profoundly shifted my
entire demeanor? After that day, I began to participate more in class, and to my surprise, I
actually found that I had a natural knack for learning. Ironically, language arts became one of my
strongest subjects. Through the years, I began to open myself up more and more, much like a
closed flower bud in the presence of sunlight. I began to involve myself both at school and
within my community. Now I have reached high school, and I find myself at the threshold of
what will be the most exciting and dynamic point of my life. The question now is, what am I
going to do? How am I going to channel the love that I have for helping the community with
my own personal passions? After careful consideration, it became clear that the only way to go,
was to combine both passions into one cohesive enterprise. Art is the very cornerstone of human
renaissance. It has the power to transform and revitalize the human mind, so what says it cant be

Ortiz 4
used to help educate todays youth? However, despite this fact, art has taken a backseat in
modern-day class education. Schools are no longer being given the necessary amount of funding
needed to sustain a cohesive art department, and when compared to other facets of modern
education such as athletics and the core classes of any given curriculum, the amount of resources
they have is laughable. As human beings, we are prone towards placing higher import on logical
and quantitative endeavors. However, throughout my entire life I have found that the very
essence of the human spirit is not found in data and numbers; rather, it's found in our ability to
transcend speech and convey the most esoteric of ideas through the simple flourish of a
paintbrush, and that is why the presence of art is, and forever will be, invaluable.