This is two days in a row that I wound down with art in the evening and what a wonderful feeling it’s been. Art soothes my soul.
I have always had art in me. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t creating or craving to create. I hBe a favourite story of my mother from when I was a preschooler when we were out on a walk and, as I did with most cool things on the ground, I saw a smarties box and wanted to pick it up and take it home. I declared that I wanted to make a “cwaft” (re:craft) out of it. I had plans. My mom could have told me that it was garbage and left it on the ground, but instead she picked it up and took it home, just like every other cool thing I’d found on the ground. Of course, my mother didn’t want me playing with what was clearly garbage, but she allowed an opportunity for my tint artistic imagination to think up some beautiful creation with garbage on the ground, without interruption, without discouragement, just an act of love and artistic freedom in picking that box. I never asked about the box again, and eventually the box was forgotten about and tossed, but the experience was a lovely, cute story that we talked about for years. I believe my mother is an artist at heart too without ever getting to let it fly, so she didn’t want to clip my wings. It was a beautiful gift.
Now, I still see garbage and under-loved things on the streets and I find their beauty and do my best to capture it. This is one element I incorporate into my art. Sometimes as a standalone image and sometimes as part of a collage or other project. Sometimes with an artistic message, sometimes to connect with others, and sometimes just for the joy of creating.
And I know that there are people who would argue that particular element of what I create is just taking close up pictures of things that don’t matter. But that misses the point entirely. I want people to see that where finding beauty and joy is concerned, everything around you matters. That is the point – beauty is everywhere, joy is everywhere, art is everywhere.
Although it’s always a struggle to make the time to do the art that feeds your soul when your bills have to be paid, I am delighted to be in a period that looks like it is shaping up to include a whole new layer of my artistic journey.
Happy Creating 💜
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