The Saturday Morning Post: We Are All Artists

Inside everyone of us, is a creative urge. A desire to draw, paint, make music, sing, dance, sculpt, shape pottery, write, tell stories, photograph, create video, work with fiber, or act. We are all artists. Most of us spend a lifetime suppressing our urge to create. We are afraid our work is not good enough, that others will find it silly, or ugly.  In doing so, we stifle a part of our development. 

This year I am going to urge you to create, to let your inner artist develop and flourish. Even if your work is used to line the bottom of the bird cage, creating it releases a part of you, develops parts of your brain that most of us spend a lifetime not allowing to flourish. 

Pick up a pencil and sketch, pick up a brush and paint, put words on paper. When you see a work of art and think, "I could do that." Follow through on that and "Just Do It!" Explore on your own, take a class, create with others, share your work or hide your work, but create.  

When I was a teenager, I learned a little bit about painting. I learned more about color and light by painting than I did from any other source.  In college I took a jewelry making art class, I learned that I could focus for hours on refining tiny details that make a difference in the finished product.  The only meaningful thing I learned from Law Journal in law school, was the importance of editing and editors. I have spent the last decade learning how to write, how to be comfortable writing and sharing what I have written. 

Exploring your creative urges, allowing yourself to practice arts will teach you things about yourself, that you never knew.  

Let's spend the year, being creative.