I can not count how many times I have heard people tell me at gigs how they ‘wish’ they could sing or play music, or, at my art shows, how they ‘wish’ they could draw and paint.
Wishing is a good start.
Please don’t stop there.
In grade school I got the worst possible marks for singing…because singing like a sweet, little girl was just not my thing…I was belting out the national anthem from day 1 (like some weird under-aged cantor)…and in high school I was not permitted to take art because I could not fit a drawing completely on a page…!
I am, as you may know, both a singer and a visual artist.
My friend recently asked ‘can anyone make art’…this is my edited answer… yes…no…yes.
-creativity and self expression is our birthright.
-everyone comes out of the womb screaming their little wrinkled faces off…there is self expression right there…and all little kids draw/scribble and colour…They stop when someone tells them ‘trees aren’t purple, pigs aren’t orange’…or when the natural inclination to compare one’s self to others stands in the way.
Anyone can try to create ‘things of beauty’ …as they see it…and, I believe, can succeed…and the success is in the ‘doing’….
no! not everyone can sing in tune…(or scream in tune)…but everyone – everyone- if they have the need to and desire to and the nerve to, can try…can work at it …and possibly succeed in getting the ‘it’ out of their system.
Bonus if someone else sees beauty in ‘it’ .
Extra bonus if someone wants to part with money for ‘it’!
‘Can anyone be an artist’…was the next query…
-my comment is this.
Being an artist ‘starts’ with a state of mind and heart and soul- a way of seeing, feeling and observing the world…and the relentless need to reflect on or communicate those observations…in some tangible form…and the often irrational courage to do so.
But of course that is not enough!… there is then ‘the doing’… putting that ‘feeling’ into some format or framework…and not giving up when the the ‘thing’ doesn’t look or sound like the ‘thing’ you had in mind….(Picasso said ….‘at the end of a project, if you end up with exactly the same thing that you had in mind when you started a project … you have failed’.)
The artist…must dig away, chip away at that ‘feeling’ ‘vision’…that ‘urge’ …long after it even makes sense to do so.
I am speaking from experience here and that is why I am writing this…all of my artistic and musical endeavors started long after the typical expiry dates.
This isn’t about talent…(of course a most useful, excellent ingredient in the mix! ) This is about action.
…of going beyond a wish…and of honouring the natural urge for self expression
…and not stopping….
So good luck with ‘your’ journey…and keep me posted.
AND do check this out if you have ever felt ‘scared’.
http://vimeo.com/58659769