I have a secret to share with you…
I’m not an artist.
At least, I’ve believed that most of my life, because an artist is someone who can draw or paint, right? Don’t know about you, but I had an awfully narrow view of what an artist is for an awfully long time.
Which is the reason SO MANY of us don’t believe we’re creative.
And that’s a damned shame.
Yeah, yeah. I hear you grumbling out there. “But Kelsey, you’re a writer. Of course, you’re creative.”
Honestly, y’all, most days I feel about as creative as a turnip. (No offense to the turnip – they’re delicious right out of the garden with a little salt sprinkled on, but they aren’t the first thing I think of when I think creative.) And in my business, that turnip feeling can be a killer so I’m always on the lookout for ways to enhance my creativity and my artistic nature (whatever the heck that is).
I came across a reference to the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. You may be familiar with it, but I wasn’t. But seriously, do I have time to learn to draw when I have all these books clamoring to be written? I mean, knowing how to draw would be nice, but it’s not a skill I’ve ever longed to have.
But what I do long for is that creative spark—that way of seeing and perceiving things that’s just the slightest bit different. And what the author of this book promises is that by learning to draw using her methods, people also learn to simply see the world around them more sharply.
She says:
“By learning to draw you will learn to see differently and, as the artist Rodin lyrically states, to become a confidant of the natural world, to awaken your eye to the lovely language of forms, to express yourself in that language.”
So this week, I’ll start my drawing journey by sketching a self-portrait, a person drawn from my memory, and my hand. Am I scared of how horrible they’ll be? Maybe, but if that’s the price I have to pay to open myself up to more creative “seeing,” I’m willing to do it.
Have any of you read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain? Anyone want to take this journey with me?
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Today is National Dog Day, and you know how I love my pups. Here’s a picture of Bad Dog and Pharaoh to celebrate!
