I Challenge You…

TO BE CREATIVE AND ARTSY~~

Last Christmas I really wanted to give my husband something homemade. So in June (I think) I purchased a paint-by-number piece with good intentions of completing it and wrapping it up. I think it’s still in my daughter’s closet. I just couldn’t get into it. I’ve never really considered myself an ‘artsy’ person.

Yes, I’m a writer. So I am in some ways very creative (at least, I’d like to think so.) However, I’ve never considered myself an ‘artsy’ kind of person. In my undergraduate courses (I majored in Interdisciplinary Humanities) I had to take a number of art classes. I didn’t hate them, but I didn’t really love them either. My favorite was probably working with clay, but even then, I never created anything exceptionally artistic. Nothing I would be able to sell, that’s for damn sure. 

When I was very young, I tried my hand at drawing. My mother could look at anything

and draw it. She was truly talented. (I wish she had never quit drawing. Perhaps I should ask her one day, why she quit. I feel like I know the answer: being an adult, having adult responsibilities, her passion for drawing likely took a back seat.) My own drawings were something I looked at very critically. Sometimes I would like them, but again, I never felt I produced something I loved. Of course, writing took over any other hobbies, and so my own drawings dwindled down to nothing. Over the years, mostly due to my studies, I did small art projects.

This week, in my 7th grade art class, I found something off of Pinterest that would be something they might enjoy. We’d been drawing forever, so it was time for a change. This weeks activity was something I found, surprisingly, very enjoyable.

I LOVE trees. I don’t know why. It’s just like my passion for triangles…no special reason, but I adore that shape. So, I first colored this with coloring pencils. I was content to leave it like that, however when I started getting my students to paint theirs, I found myself drawn to the paintbrush. I couldn’t stop. I worked on it through the next two classes, eager to see the finished product. And VOILA! There you have it. I call it Cool  Warmth.

So I wanted to share my small bout of artsy-ness with you. Perhaps I might inspire you to try something that you have previously given up on, or dwindled away from for whatever reason. I’d really love to see some of your artsy stuff. It might inspire me, or someone else for that matter.