"Art is what fills your spirit."

"It saddens me when people say they're not artistic. Just because you don't like the way you draw doesn't mean that you don't have a form of art in your life. Art is what fills your spirit." - McKenzie, Oliver and Abraham's

It saddens me, too. We are all artistic...creative...created by a Creator to create...it's in us. Some can draw, some can paint, some can sculpt. Some can take photos, some make movies, some sing or play instruments.  Some can sew...or design homes or buildings or bridges. Some paint with flowers and create beautiful gardens, some weave, or knit, or crochet. It's all art. All of it.

I have always been creative. When I was four years old I remember knowing that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I didn't know that it wasn't easy to make a living as an artist...or that it wasn't a "real job". All I knew is that I loved to create and wanted to do it forever.

Ever since I can remember I loved to color and to draw and cut and paste. In 2nd grade I would do my best to finish my times tables first so that I could choose Art as my next activity. I didn't care what we were making, I just wanted to make it.

As I got a little older (I'm talking 8, 9 years old) I would make "floor plans" in my dad's garage using brooms and shovels as the "walls". I would sit and look at floor plans my parents would bring home after looking at model homes. I was intrigued...I loved to look at them. And eventually, when I discovered graph paper (insert angels singing...I still love graph paper to this day!), I'd draw my own. I took Drafting in middle school...it was one of my favorite classes.

I took a few art classes in junior high and high school...neither of which were a great success. (Although I found a small pig sculpture the other day that I'd made in junior high that actually wasn't bad!) I took a graphic design class in high school that was a disaster...it definitely wasn't my forte and I allowed my poor grade and lack of teacher enthusiasm to determine how I felt about myself as an artist. After that I pretty much stopped creating things.

Thank goodness, I found my artistic voice again years later and since then I have been making things again. I sewed for a while. I made rustic painted signs and sold them in a craft booth. I then got into collage and assemblage...that lasted quite a few years. Then one day I was given a 35 mm camera and that opened up a whole new world for me...the world of photography. And as you can guess, the photography stuck.  :)

Anyway...all this to say...I believe that we are all artists. And the only reason people say they're not artistic is because, I believe, someone told them that they weren't.

I look back now and wonder why I gave that one art class so much power over my creative self. I didn't even like graphic design. I wanted to draw and paint and sculpt. So why I allowed that experience so much power over me I still can't figure out. But, I did. And if nothing else, it taught me to encourage others in their creative endeavors...especially kids. I mean, you just never know what someone might become if given the right surroundings, the right tools and lots of encouragement.

Every child is an artist. 

The problem is how to remain an 

artist once we grow up. 

- Pablo Picasso