To be You student correspondent, Gilda Flores

Art is everywhere. You can see it, you can hear it, and you can feel it. It is in the words that you utter, in what you read or write, and in the photos that you take on your camera or cell phone.

But despite its ubiquitous nature, what really is art? Do we acknowledge its true beauty, one that goes beyond what we see and hear?

An event in celebration of the arts was recently held at Commune Café in Makati. Consisting of talks by young artists, it was organized by Gilda Flores, a student correspondent of the Inquirer and a contributor to WhenInManila, Voice of the Youth Online, and The Lasallian.

Stay true to yourself

Angela Romero, cofounder and public relations officer of Youth Leaders of Tarlac (YouLead), and contributor to WheninManila and Buzzfeed, gave a talk on creative brainstorming. She emphasized the importance of staying true to yourself.

To tell a story, she said, your art should be something personal and close to your heart. It doesn’t have to be grand, it just needs to be you. In the process, surround yourself with people who will push you to your limits.

For his talk on spoken-word poetry, Rian Magtaan began by reciting a poem, and then asking the audience, “Sino ako?” You write poetry with your life, he said, so before creating something, you must know yourself first.

This is how we’re supposed to treat our language. We tend to embrace other languages and cultures without first appreciating our own, he said. Rian also pointed out poetry’s power to challenge our system. Poetry is more than just feelings or hugot; it can also be a call for change.

Rian Magtaan performs an original spoken word piece

Cara Oliver, Green Giant FM publicity and productions photographer and videographer, gave tips and a step-by-step approach to the basics of video blogging through YouTube. More than a venue for achieving fame, YouTube is a platform for sharing your talents, skills and passions. It’s also important to define your objectives for video blogging. In Cara’s case, it’s to inspire and inform.

In her talk on photography, Kaycee Valmonte, photographer for The Lasallian, said photos have the ability to tell a story. Thus, in taking photos, you have to remember only one thing: your photos have to be what you want to see, the moments you want to remember.

Being a photographer doesn’t require big and expensive cameras, she added. In photography, or in any kind of passion for that matter, you just have to start small, start somewhere and start now.

In her talk on writing, Gilda Flores believes that anyone can be a writer. But being one is more than just knowing punctuation, subject-verb agreement, or sentence structure.

To be a writer, you have to be alive. You have to have life experiences. And you have to be able to express yourself. Writing is finding depth and meaning in people, places, things and events.

Art is more than meets the eye. Art comes from life and it inspires people to interpret it in prose, poetry, still and moving pictures. That is how art is made. Art is undamaged because it is true.