Live In The House That Art Built

I am a creator.  It's what feeds me.  It's what drives me.  It's what pulls me through in difficult days.  It's what adds a little more shine to the good days.  This is where I live.

This is from a couple years back.  It didn't hang around long.  It now lives overseas.  :)  That makes me happy.  A part of me is somewhere I've never physically been.

Now if you are a creative, like me, I'm going to share a piece of advice.  Take it or leave it.  It's what has worked for me.  FIND THAT THING YOU LOVE AND DO IT!!!

I spent a lot of years in the scrapbooking industry.  Now don't get me wrong, I love it.  I'm sentimental and scrapbooking hits every emotional cord with me.  But here's what I didn't like.  I didn't like all the drama.  The backbiting women who would throw anyone under the bus just to hit the pages of a magazine, or be on a design team that most times wasn't even a paying gig.  I didn't like the companies that would flat out steal product ideas from designers.  One of the girls on my design team had submitted a product idea to one of the up and coming companies, the idea was turned down.  However, the very next show we attended, there it was in their booth.   Yeah, that's not cool.  I didn't like that at all.  I didn't like selling mass produced products (although I made decent money).  I didn't enjoy selling other peoples designs.  I wanted to do it myself.  And I really really didn't like having to conform to a certain style or product to get my work published or recognized.  Getting published and design teams were a necessity if you wanted to progress in that industry.  You had to have the name.  The pressure to fit in yet be different was insane.  A daily paradox.  I grew to hate it.  Not the scrapbooking, just the bullshit of being that deep in it.  And feeling like I had to conform to the masses to be successful.  I don't do well at conforming.  And that's where I found my way to Mixed Media art.  That is where I learned to do what you love even if it's not popular, or even if you may never end up in a gallery.  Do it anyway.  And here is why.

It feeds your soul.  It heals.  That thing you love that you think you don't have time for, well, that's what you need to lean on more than anything.  That is the thing that will heal you when you are hurting.  That is the outlet for your true essence to come through.  That is what will lead you to the freedom to just be yourself.  And at the end of the day it really won't matter how good you are, or aren't.  It's not about that.  It's about YOU being YOU.  And on the days that it feels like the world is shattering around you, you will always be able to turn to that thing to pull you through.  And no one, I mean NO ONE, can take it from you unless you allow them.  But that is a whole other blog post.  :)

For me, all of this came down to living in the house that art built.  Living in myself.  Yes, I want to be good at what I do. I am a perfectionist.  But more importantly I just want to do it.  I need to do it.  No matter how good I am or am not.  I will do it anyway.  Simply because creating is that thing for me.  Sometimes it's jewelry (most times actually), sometimes it's mixed media, sometimes it's repurposing something that should probably just go to the dump, but it's always always always creating something.  That is my thing I love.  That is what I do.  That is the thing that pulls me through on the days I feel like everything is falling apart and hopeless.  That is my "FIND THAT THING YOU LOVE AND DO IT"!