The Creative Feeling.

By Dr. Gregory Lyons, PsyD, LCPC.
8/8/2025.

There was a time when the clock inched toward third period and your heart picked up pace—not because of math or spelling, but because art class was next.

You remember the smell of tempera paint and freshly sharpened pencils. The way construction paper bent just enough for careful folding. Maybe you drew the changing colors of your favorite season, painted a portrait of your family pet, or sculpted a lumpy clay ornament for the holidays. Some projects were made for parent recognition, others for the sheer joy of seeing something you imagined take shape in front of you.

Art class was more than a subject—it was a sanctuary.

Today, that sanctuary is vanishing. Across the United States, arts funding is being cut from schools at an alarming rate. Approximately 55% of school districts have slashed or severely reduced arts budgets, according to education reports. While 41 states still require some form of art education, instructional time is steadily shrinking. In elementary schools, dedicated arts instruction has fallen from 70% to 68% since 2017. In high schools, it’s dropped from 64% to 60%, and the number of schools with dedicated arts budgets has fallen from 89% to 81%.

The loss is not just in the curriculum—it’s in the culture.

As children grow older, many are told that drawing, painting, or sculpting is “childish.” The message is reinforced in subtle ways—fewer opportunities to create, less encouragement to explore, and a constant comparison to the polished perfection of professional artists on social media. For some, the comparison is enough to make them stop altogether.

And yet, creating is not frivolous. It is deeply personal. The act of making something by hand—whether it’s a charcoal sketch, a quilt, or a paper collage—connects us to ourselves in a way that nothing else can.

The benefits of keeping that connection alive are more than sentimental. Art therapy research shows it can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress by up to 73%. In veterans with PTSD, it has cut symptom severity by half. It has been linked to boosts in self-esteem for nearly eight out of ten participants and has shown measurable improvements in mood, anxiety, and fatigue in hospital patients.

To lose art is to lose a lifeline.

So if you haven’t picked up a pencil in years, or if you’ve been too shy to paint for fear of being “not good enough,” consider this your invitation to begin again. The joy you felt in that school art class was real. It mattered then, and it matters now.

Draw something tonight. Smudge a line with your fingertip. Mold a piece of clay. Fold paper into a shape that pleases you.

Because the creative feeling is still yours—and it’s worth keeping.