Commentary

Anyone can apply

February 19, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

My daughter Patricia says, “I will die on the hill to say that anyone can play music – one way or another – so long as it’s in their heart.”

Patricia is a multi-instrumental musician and vocalist. She has been a music teacher, in particular, for piano and vocal for over 20 years. In all the conversations with so many artists this esteemed paper has published, the one thing on which they all seem to agree is that anyone can do art. Indeed, when asked at the end of the interview what they would say to a young person who aspires to “be an artist,” each and every one says, “Just start. Whatever you love to do, do it. If you need some help on how to go on, there are plenty of YouTube videos with tips and instruction.”

Taking it with sincerity comes with the additional advice to enrol in an arts school or attend workshops or classes frequently offered by professional artists.

They all deny AI – let it be your pen, your brush – your own voice.

A reflection occurred to me on how our human history has been dominated by an unending list of wars. Most of them carry a name in order to distinguish one war from the next. Right, all the way back. This can mean that what is good about our species, which is our passion for creating, is given less attention in how we live and rule our world. We care less about our cultures and artistic achievements than the idea of killing and cruelty.

In other words, how we see ourselves globally centres on our inclination to violence and aggression, not on our art and cultures, which actually define who we are. Surely war does not have to be the sole weight and measure of our overall human history, where the art of the times will always reflect more truly the damage and crime that is war, how unjustified it ever is; that the foul aggressiveness of perpetrators should have never been allowed by their nations’ courts and Generals.

In our present day, the arts could be taught as the mainstay of society, understanding the important influence art has on everything and for these times, offered as a better outlet for our energies than the current arms race we are witnessing now.

In this world, in this point of history, there may be more call for the voices and wonders of artists than ever, and the best news is that we are all artists in our hearts and instincts.

It has been a lesson to meet people in those interviews, who were interested in learning how to pick up a brush and let the colour flow, how to put an image on a sheet, whether the face of a stranger or the leaves on an imagined tree. They are following this after a lifetime of doing other things or going back to a passion of their youth, once their children need less from them.

Not only is the presence of art a need in our lives, but creating is good for the soul, and there are many avenues for the journey. So many artists have told me, as well, about how the family home encouraged their childhood fingers to play tunes on the piano, build things with blocks, paint, sculpt – just do it until what they were creating became part of who they are. So may it be said of our own homes and the opportunities we provide for our children to expand their minds and sensitivities by dabbling all the way to a real connection to what truly stirs them.

The grassroots of society have always been the source of environmental rescue, and, without actual intent necessarily, artists have often been in the forefront of that rescue. Never more than now is the need for intelligent vigilance, as we witness our leaders abandoning the notion of democracy by passing laws that empower them and those close to them too far.

This abuse has been questioned and checked in this province and more locally in Caledon, for the dangers those executive changes of rule are threatening a once-wonderful environment. Free of the need to account to the acknowledged Environmental Authorities, they make plans for unfettered and destructive development.

However, the watchdogs of this community stage protests even in the cold, with warm mittens and coffee afterward, to let it be known there is a will to stop the damage. Letters to the politicians and the paper continue to bring pressure to the willful harm proposed.

Here in Orangeville, that danger is reduced at the local level, where the town’s mayor and council have declared the Strong Mayors law as going against democracy and have dealt with it to the extent possible.

Political balance, streets glowing with murals on brick walls and colourful utility boxes, carved statues everywhere, a theatre to match the big cities and fine community theatres. So much more – the Chocolate Shop …

It is a good place to live.

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