You may have heard or seen the term “Vent Art” floating around in artist spaces online recently. If you’ve ever been confused on what this new term exactly entails, you’ve come to the right place!
Hello, My name is Markus, I’m a co-op student here at the CO. and studying to become a professional animator! I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil and taking my art seriously since I was 10. Vent Art is something I’ve created many times in the past and continue to use as a way of coping and self-regulating. Now, let’s get into the specifics.
What is Vent Art?
Vent Art, to put it simply, is any art that is created to express an emotion. This could be a messy doodle put together to express your emotions quickly or a carefully created project that is curated to instill an emotion the artist experiences on to their audience/viewers. Here’s some examples! Let’s say you’ve had a rough day, some people were rude to you or nothing seemed to be going quite right. You feel like shouting or throwing something. Instead, however, you take out your sketchbook and a pen and begin to scribble. You angrily scribble more and more shapes, spirals, squares, jagged lines, curved lines, until you notice you’ve filled a large section of the page and feel a lot calmer. Focusing on making these abstract shapes helped and thus you have created a piece of vent art!
Another example: Let’s say you’ve recently lost a pet, and that loss has had a heavy toll on you. You aren’t really sure how to tell people about it, nor do you really know how to explain your own emotions to yourself. Instead, you decide to paint something about your loss, maybe it’s a painting of you hugging or holding your late pet, maybe it’s an abstract painting that is meant to represent this loss. You have created Vent Art and in the process may have helped process your emotions and express them with others!
Why is Vent Art Beneficial?
There are many benefits to be experienced through the process of vent art. Vent art for some people has allowed them to effectively communicate complex feelings they struggle to show or talk about. Others have found it’s a stress reliever and a great hobby to train their focus and fine motor skills. Vent art helps with emotional regulation, stress management, and creativity. Vent art can help people connect with each other through shared emotions or even allow a bridge for those who have not gone through the same things as the artist.
Vent Art Is For Everyone
I’m serious! You don’t have to be any specific skill level of artist to create vent art and experience its benefits. Vent art should not be something that you worry about, it’s there for the exact opposite reason. Vent art doesn’t have to be beautiful, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to come from you. That’s the real beauty, anyone and everyone can participate. No matter where you’d place yourself on your art journey, or your goals and ambitions, we all can benefit from slowing down and processing our emotions through art.
Vent Art and Creative Arts Therapy
Some may wonder why a blog like this is attached to a Creative Arts Therapy website, well it’s rather simple! Creative Arts Therapy involves using creativity to explore, express, and process emotions in art. Now you may also notice that vent art is the same way, being a tool used in a professional setting to get you the help you need. Goes to show how effective this practice can be, right? Here at the CO., Angel helps people learn, understand, and grow through whatever has been troubling them through creative and artistic expression. If all of this talk about vent art has made you in the mood to create something yourself, I say go for it! And if you are someone who is now a bit more interested in Creative Arts Therapy, have a scroll through our website to learn more!
Have a wonderful day and keep on being you!
-Markus
