You know that feeling you get, when you can't handle your feelings?
I certainly know that feeling, and for me all that negative energy is either sticking around in my body, or it's creating a toxic atmosphere around me, or both!
Duke Ellington once said,
"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."
Imagine what might result if we can only redirect our emotions into something creative.
Just tonight I came across my copy of "The Artist's Way". Complete with the notes and highlights from the first time I read it possibly 25 years ago. If you don't know it, it's more of a textbook kind of read - a help-yourself book. I got distracted part way through and never actually completed the work in it. I remember then, thinking I wasn't very creative, and remnants of that self-judgement linger today. But it's not true.
When we learned about art in elementary school was just so very simplified. Paints, pencils, craft paper, glue, and some tongue depressors and a pipe cleaner or two. Am I right? Macaroni and glitter? Clay to make an ashtray for mom. Oh, and rubber cement! But we grow up to realize art can be just about anything we define it to be. I'm learning that my creativity revolves more around text and processes. I do know there is something artistic about it, so I'm hopeful that I may find extra inspiration in the pages of this rediscovered book. I'm also such a different person than I was 25 years ago, so it should also be very interesting to see how I've grown.
Creativity can birth wonderfully diverse things, and I'm excited to see what my energy can become when I let the artist in me have a little space to express herself.
What's on your canvas?
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