Blood Moon (Original work) Do we understand abstract art?

Having been quite busy with work, discord, Steemit and life in general, I haven't had as much time to make art in the last few weeks. In busy periods like this I find my creative juices get all pent up and I start to feel restless. For some reason when I get in these phases I always gravitate towards more abstract type art, I find it very relaxing and freeing to have no goal sometimes and to just let everything flow onto the canvas.

When I was younger (before I had taken a big interest in art) abstract perplexed me. I couldn't understand why anyone saw value in scribbles and splotches. I mean it looks like anyone can do it right? When I first decided I wanted to be an artist and I began dedicating myself to practice I made an effort to be literal. To try to draw things as they are. For some reason I thought capturing a resemblance to an object or person would give my art more legitimacy, and also it would be easier to track my progress.

While I still believe that technique and understanding how to render light/shadow and depth etc. are quite important I have come to the realization that those are just stepping stones on the journey and once those foundations are built there are endless branching paths that they open up.

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Do I still try to work on my realism and depictions of the world around me?

Yes.

I'm far from perfect so I still find it challenging. I feel like it makes my mind work harder. It unlocks a more logical part of my brain. But I am seeing more and more the value and joy in the journey of creating art and that has led to me having a much better appreciation for other abstract artists.

I still have my preferences of course, after all art is highly subjective but I find myself being more and more satisfied looking at blobs, scratches and smears of color and allowing myself to get lost them.