“I am not an artist.”
As I was growing up, I made this statement so often I would be a rich woman if I had a dollar for every time. All the while, I was lying to myself. Keeping me from my own personal garden of Eden.
You see, I come from a lineage of artistic people. I have a great grandfather who helped create an art show in NY. I have a great grandmother whose teenage doodles adorn my wall because they are beautiful. I have a mother who, I have full faith, could create anything if you just give her long enough to figure out how. I had a father who had art flowing in his veins (and just could not see it). I have 5 siblings who each have their own creative genius that is astounding when you see it in action. In other words, I had a lot of mirrors to compare myself to.
Truly, more than I belong to one ethnicity or another, I belong to the people who call themselves “Artists.” I still felt myself separate from them because it didn’t seem as though the same kind of art was flowing out of me. But…that isn’t what indicates an artist. Art isn’t “supposed” to match. Art is personal and individual. There are as many iterations of art as there are stars in the sky. I am so grateful that I gave myself permission to start putting pen to paper. My art may not be painting a canvas effortlessly or drawing a pen and ink, but these words are not nothing. They are something. They are different. They are mine.
Also, art is not something that you make primarily for money. Art is not something you must be “good at” to be allowed to create (thank the gods).
Simply:
We must create.
We (Humans) must express ourselves, harnessing all of the random that is happening in our internal universes and shape it into something that others can experience. It is how we stay sane. It’s how we give people even a taste of the brilliance happening behind the lids of our eyes that is uniquely our own. Whether it is the food we make, a song we sing, a paper we write, a room we design, an explanation of a math problem-we must create.
I am so glad that this is a narrative that is being spoken about in all corners of thought with the channelers and readers, the content creators, the TEDTalkers, and folks like Rick Rubin shouting it from the rooftops. It is in the ether. We have been witnessing a rise in makers for a while. Now, (I think) we need to think outside of the box (i.e. phones). There is more world to make! There are more canvases available to us! We need beauty and thoughtfulness in all of our spaces.
Sure, the world is falling a part. =) But what better time will there be for us to capture snapshots of what it feels like to be living through this? What better time will there be for us to start honing our skills of creation? We may need them soon for practical reasons: To rebuild a better world.
Eating My Way Through It 