Recently a woman shared with me an experience she’d had in an art class she’d taken decades earlier.
The class had been practicing graded watercolor washes (a technique in which you apply diluted watercolor with the goal of smoothly transitioning from dark to light).
She’d just completed covering her page in wash when the instructor walked over. After standing behind her for a long moment, the instructor reached over and picked up a brush.
Dipping it in paint, she quickly sketched a picture on the bottom corner of the student’s work.
Stepping back, she proclaimed, “There. That’s the best part of this painting.”
Then she proceeded to grab a pair of scissors and cut out the sketch, walking away with it in her hand. No joke, she actually cut it out and took it with her!
You can imagine the impact of this moment, particularly on a young person just starting out.
Perhaps you’ve even experienced something similar.
I frequently hear stories like this, from people sharing the moment when they lost their belief in themselves as creators, as artists.
The reality is we are all artists. ALL OF US.
We may not all create with paints or clay or prose, but we are all creators. Perhaps your art is cooking a great meal or writing killer business letters.
Perhaps it’s styling a great head of hair, or holding Scorpion pose, or composing an elegant piece of code. Maybe you’re gifted in the art of deep listening, or the art of talking to young children, or the art of parallel parking in the tiniest spaces.
If you stop and think about it for a moment, I’ll bet you can come up with at least 10 ways in which you are an ARTIST. In fact, if pressed, you could probably come up with 100 ways, and more.
You are already an artist, and so am I.
It’s simply a matter of claiming it.