Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Being who we are meant to be means embracing a title

I think as artists we are blessed with this unsatisfiable need to create beautiful things from simple supplies. Just some blobs of paint and a piece of paper, maybe just a pencil and a napkin. I can't tell you how many times I have grabbed a napkin to do a quick sketch of something that had to be captured at that moment. We often are not understood and thus the crazy artist stigma.

This crazy behavior reminds me of the time a group of us artists were having dinner at a little restaurant in San Clemente. We had all ordered our meals and we were having a glass of wine and laughing when the sun came into the restaurant through a small window during sunset and lit up a shelf full of colored jars. As if we had choreographed it, we all jumped up at the same moment and ran to the shelf to start taking photos, trying to capture the moment, the light.  Well you can only imagine how we scared everyone in the restaurant including the chef and owner as they watched us all jump out of our chairs without a word and stood in a doorway taking tons of pictures. Within minutes the sun was gone and regained our composure and looked around to see everyone staring at us and we couldn't help but laugh. They had no idea what drove us to do that, they didn't understand that need to capture a moment. They were clueless and so we did look like a bunch of crazy people. I have so many of those crazy "artist" moments when I just have to pull over and take in the scene or capture a moment.


 I know that many of you, my artist friends, find it uncomfortable to call yourself an artist. That you can't even say the word, let alone feel like one. But why my friend?

Do you have that desire to create? Do you love to experiment and play with different types of supplies. Do you see a painting in every sunset and sunrise, in every tree, driving down the street or just sitting in a restaurant? Does it feel like you have all these projects or paintings inside of you and you don't have enough time to do it all?

Now ask yourself do you feel inadequate, untalented and not worthy of the title "Artist". Do you think people will judge you and you are not good enough? Well then congratulations, POOF, you are an Artist! You need to sign all your work and appreciate your talent now and use it more often. One of the biggest artist stumbling blocks is not practicing your talent! Go forth my artists friends and create! If you haven't viewed the little video on the right side of my blog you should take a few minutes to do so, it is well worth it!

5 comments:

.Guinevere said...

that picture of the sunset and palm trees(?) is absolutely the most beautiful thing. the scene with the jars and the light you described als sounds lovely. do you still have pictures?

http://saundersartistblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Joan Tavolott said...

You expressed it well! Many artists do have a problem admitting that they are artists. I doesn't matter if anyone sees your work, just that you are expressing yourself. Keep doing it, Desiree...I plan to!

Ladydy5 aka: Diane Yates said...

That's me, can't say Artist. Funny but I was going through my sketchbook and saw some work I did several years ago and it looked pretty good.Surprised my self!

Desiree's Designs said...

Thanks Guinevere, Joan and Diane, so good of you to stop by and post a comment. I do still have the picts Guinevere, Joan I plan on it! Diane, I have done that too, put something away that I thought was terrible at the time to rediscover it later and like it. Is that because our eye sight has gotten worse or you are not being so hard on yourself once removed from the self induced pressure to create a masterpiece. For me, I think its the ladder.

Deborah said...

Yup...that's me. Not sure how important the name is, as long as I keep making stuff! What video are you referring to? Sorry...I'm not finding it! Thanks!

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