How to Feel: Why do YOU create?

Thursday!

amyoes.com

Child With a Heavy Heart

“Mistakes are the portals of discovery” ~James Joyce

Hey everyone, I've got a wedding coming up, a performance at Beechwood Arts this afternoon and a heck of a lot of paint all over my face.  (Note to self:  don't itch nose when using acrylics)

Finding Your Creative Side...

I was so excited to do a guest post for Breanna Gunn on her awesome blog Brea Getting Fit.

 Check it out and find out how to access your creativity in seven easy steps!

Here's a little start...

1.  Close your eyes, take a breath, and take a mindful stroll outside (preferably as nature-like as possible)!
2. Find the first image that excites you. How does it make you feel? What kind of music do you hear in your head? If that image were a dance, what would be its song?
3. Grab a piece of paper and crayons. (There’s nothing like a box of old-school crayolas!)
4. Put on the song that your image was “dancing to.”
5. Start to draw to the music – just one continuous line. Don’t think. Just hear the music and draw.
6. When you hear the music louder than your thoughts, forget all the rules and fill in the whole page.
7. Write a letter on the back and send it to someone you love…or better yet, to yourself!

But go on, read the rest of the article, and see what you can create!

In The Studio...

I realy didn't do much today - but I'm quite happy with how everything turned out!

All I did was throw some paint on a canvas, and literally bang it against the table as hard as I could...

(...Nine times...)

 I was debating whether to add anything, because the truth is, I do like these colors as they are.  But I thought maybe a central element might be nice.

This is what I came up with.

So I "surrounded it with the things that matter most..."

...which is LOTS of color!

Those will be very nice to hang all together on a wall or something.

Art Coming and Going...

I've still got my art in Temple Shalom...

...Blue Lemon...

...Discovery Museum...

...and Beechwood Arts...

I finally had to take down my art at Tusk & Cup Fine Coffee, but before everything was packed up to go, my three brothers were able to stop by and check out my work, which meant the world to me!

Tusk & Cup Fine Coffee, my art, my brothers!

There is absolutely nothing in this world like the power of family.  I spent a lot of time on my own as an artist - I'm usually alone in the studio, I'm by myself writing, rehearsing, planning, thinking, creating...but as an artist, you always have to remember that you're a person first.  Because there is NO art without connection.

A card I made for Brandon a while ago

So, as all of these exciting opportunities come up and I get carried away in a whirlwind of to-do's and bucket list ambitions, I always try to remember why I am doing what I do.  

I create because the world around me, the love I feel, and the incredible people in my life inspire me. 

 I create because I want to make something of the amazing blessings I feel in my life.

I create to give thanks, and to give back to those who love me and who I love more than words could do justice.

I create because the people in my life fill be with giddy joy, and I want some way to mark the imprint they have on my life.

I create because it's how I can connect with whatever that higher force above me is, and to feel like I belong in and to the universe.

I create because I have so much in me that I need to create with...and what good is it locked up inside?

I create because I am overwhelmed with the flabbergasting idea that I have suddenly found the love of my life, am marrying my soulmate, and am earning an entire family along with him

I create because what else would I do?

Lovers In The Snow

And as I create daily and moment-by-moment, I feel embraced by daily gifts and moment-by-moment blessings.  

Being able to show my work in these galleries is granting me with the gift of bearing my heart to the world.   Being a person makes me an artist.  I've got a mind, heart, body, and I've learned over time that I can feel.  I've learned that the numbness I had to take on over a decade of medical trauma was a practical coping mechanism, but now that my life has reached a point of health and happiness, it's okay to feel again.

That's why I create, really.  I create to feel.

Why do you create?

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.” ~Jimi Hendrix