Everyone is an artist.
I believe that.
Maybe not an artist in the ordinary sense.
Maybe you gag at a blank canvas or tremble in front of a naked sheet of paper. Maybe you can’t carry a tune let alone read music.
Maybe the farthest you got as a sculptor was the little clay pots you made in primary school, the ones your Mom fawned over only to find their way into a forgotten drawer.
Maybe you are the burned toast, canned soup, microwave the shit out of the meal type of chef?
You are an artist, trust me.
Your art is what you offer the world.
It’s in your words, your compassion, your intelligence, your wisdom. It’s there waiting for you to let it out of the small confines of your body and mind to release it like wild, colorful balloons on a summer’s day.
We are waiting for you. The world needs your art. Especially now.
You are taking your art, your gift for granted. You are seeing it as ordinary, as nothing special. You may not even recognize the art that lives inside of you.
You think that your work is just a job. Your work is just a job if your art is absent, if there is no place for the expression of what is dear to you.
Life really is too short not to give your creative expression a playground.
Think of your art in color, in form, in sound, in movement. What would your art look like, feel like, sound like, move like?
Grant it the life it deserves.
Let your art come out and play with abandon.
You are the warden, keeping your most creative expression hidden behind the bars of fear.
What will the world think of you if you release the song, the poem, the sculpture, the meal, the drawing, the conversation that wants to come forth?
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
― Pablo Picasso
What of your love, your compassion, your empathy?
Yes, that is art too.
All creative expression sources from Love.
How that love is expressed is up to you. Is it in your work? Is it in your play? Is it in the kiss you give your loved ones or the playful hugs you give your children?
Is it in the board room, in the classroom, in the doctor’s office?
Is it in your activism as you put yourself out there to make the world a better place?
Where is it? Go get it. Take it out of the hiding place.
Dare to offer your art up to the world, not as an ordinary resource but as a sacred prayer.
What is being called forth in you? There, that is your art.
Offer it up dear one.
See your art as a prayer, as something sacred and worthy. Be the invitation to something more.
Once you begin to see your creative expression as sacred you will stop apologizing, you will stop being afraid, you will stop holding back.
You will come to honor your art as worthy of its own expression, powerfully, joyfully, prayerfully.
And so will others.
Until you do, no one else will.
We need artists, expressing love through their life and work, so we remember who we truly are even in the face of those who would tell us to remain small, silent, mediocre and hidden.
Do your art.
Offer it up as a prayer and you will be astonished by the answers your prayer receives.
Originally published at www.aliciamrodriguez.com on April 25, 2017.
Alicia M. Rodriguez is a writer, storyteller and catalyst for personal growth. Visit her site and download the free e-book 10 Principles for Conscious Living.
Originally published at medium.com