I never took an art class when I was growing up. I never thought of myself as creative at all. When the kids were very small, we starting hand making our holiday gifts. Partly because of financial necessity and partly because I had developed a big time aversion to shopping malls. With two toddlers under the age of three as my companions in crime and my only critics, my own inner critic took a vacation too. We "played" our way through clay and collage, painted glass ornaments and heavily embellished wearing apparel. We "found" the wonderful world of beads and a passion was ignited. Even as I was heavily immersed in the ancient world of artifacts and antiquities, images and papers continued to haunt me. And I continued to collect them all, stashing them in every nook and cranny I could find to keep them safe from my husband and his wild "clutter purging" rampages. I never had the right answer when his "lawyer" side arose to grill me on the witness stand. "What are you keeping this %$#@ for?"
The many years the kids and I crafted together are sweet memories for all of us. The art they created is my most prized treasures. But one of the most important things we took away from our artistic endeavors was the knowledge that ALL of us are creative and need to fulfill this ancient hunger that is buried deep within us all. Each and everyone of us NEEDS to create to live a satisfied and happy life. If we do not feed this inner yearning, it will turn into a cavernous hole, ready to eat up our time and our money as we try to fill it with shopping and eating and exercising and ipods and televsion and video games and cocktails and computers and every and any kind of diversion we can think of to stop the craving. And the answer is simple. CREATE SOMETHING. ANYTHING.
Your work resonates with me and I follow you daily. Today's post REALLY hit home and I thank you for expressing something I've been feeling but haven't been able to verbalize. Very much appreciated.
Carol Leigh
http://carolleigh.blogspot.com
Posted by: Carol Leigh | May 22, 2009 at 07:10 AM
Yes... you are so right. We NEED to create, especially when times are tough. Creating is how we feed our souls. This is a very beautiful collage... Roxanne
Posted by: rivergardenstudio | May 22, 2009 at 12:35 PM
I absolutely LOVE the piece pictured in this post! Since I turned 50 this year, it just seems to speak to me. What a wonderful work of art!
Posted by: Karen Stiehl Osborn | May 25, 2009 at 01:00 PM
The best way to learn art is to watch children do it. It's instructive, humbling and always a combination of the best kind of "serious" with the best kind of humor. And to think, you did it with your kids! Lucky mom!
Posted by: Shirley Ende-Saxe | May 29, 2009 at 07:02 PM
I love the circles in this one Kathy.
Posted by: Leslie Avon Miller | June 17, 2009 at 08:40 AM