Art Design: Facing Fears.

Fear is among the most natural experiences. We are born afraid, and as we grow, our fears follow, sometimes we outgrow our fears, other times, our fears grow with us. Of course, things that evoke fear can differ wildly from person to person, likewise, those initial jerk reactions to said fears can be just as drastically different. Two people may be afraid of spiders, but only one of those two may run from a room screaming.
The next obvious question is, how can you cope with your fears? And to that I say, Art.

Making Fears:

We often try our best to avoid our fears and their sources, which is often easier said than done. Being afraid is rarely a comfortable feeling, but there is something worthwhile in learning to cope with your fear, and often, coping begins with allowing yourself to simply ponder your fear, or in this case, making a physical representation of said fears. For some people, that would be as simple as making a snake or spider, however, some fears are far more abstract, such as the twisting anxiety of speaking before a crowd, the panic of finding oneself alone, the fear of depths, the vastness of the cosmos. For the less physically definable fears one may encounter, a less literal approach to representation may be needed.

Facing Fears:

Do you have what you fear? Is it tangible? Can you hold it? Can you find pride in your accomplishment? You should, you just created an embodiment of your fear, and look, you’re doing just fine. But, now what? You could always destroy it, smoosh it, throw it, tear it apart, physically dominate the physical representation of your fear and carry on knowing that if push comes to shove, you know you can overcome your fear again and again.
Or, you could attempt to reframe your fear.

Reframing Fear:

You have your fear before you. It is physical, and it is malleable. So change it. Alter your fear into something that you may enjoy. Turn creepy crawlies into something friend-shaped. Close those staring eyes. Fill the dark depths of the ocean with what you wish to find down there. Reframing a fear does not make the fear go away, but it allows you to see the fear in a new light, a light that may not evoke the same fear as it once did.

To be afraid is to be alive, but to be human is to live on despite being afraid, to be human is to understand what we fear, why we fear and how we may live with our fears.