I get up super early these days and ride my bicycle to the studio. This time of year it is quite cold and almost dark when I start. There are not too many people up yet and sometimes I feel I shouldn’t be either. The cars that speedily pass me this early are most likely business people commuting into San Francisco.
My doubts about why I am pedaling so early begin to fade as I turn off the busy road onto a stretch of bike path that goes along a wetland. The sun is coming up now and the water begins to shimmer. The egrets, gulls, stilts and pelicans are everywhere. The din of the traffic is gone. This path is mostly empty. In many ways this reminds me of what it is like to be an artist.
It is the path less taken.
Gratitude is too small a word to describe how fortunate I feel to be an artist. On this particularly beautiful morning there are so many reasons why.
[Tweet “”I love that making Art is about the exceptions instead of the rules.” – NW”]
Here are just a few.
I love that making Art teaches me about Life.
I love when you mix cadmium yellow light with phthalo green it feels like you’re standing in a tropical rainforest.
I love I don’t know where I am going but somehow I know when I am getting there.
I love that my favorite scraping tool was originally used by a dentist.
I love that making Art is about the exceptions instead of the rules.
I love that there are people in the world who understand and desire what I make.
I love that I can have any colors I desire.
I love that I have laughed out loud when making Art.
I love that sometimes I have cried.
I love that when I make my Art, I always hold on so tightly but when I am done, I have to let it go.
I love that artists are a tribe.
I love that a bad day can turn into a great day when you make Art you love.
Sometimes I pass another cyclist coming the other way on this beautiful stretch of bike path. Maybe it is because there are not many people on this path, or perhaps because they are feeling as I do, we always nod to each other. Sometimes it is just a small wave or a smile, but there almost always is a mutual acknowledgment.
There are just two of us here, moving through this extraordinary place at the same time. The sun is rising, everything is turning golden, there are birds everywhere and, not unlike the journey of an artist, for some miraculous reason most everybody else went the other way.
I love that too.
Why do you love being an artist?
Happy Thanksgiving!
12 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
I opened this in my email box this dreary Thanksgiving morning, feeling rather sorry for myself being alone, as my family are not here with me on the this day of family.
But as I read, it took my mind along and I felt I could feel the cool air on my face and moisture run through my hair as I peddled along with you. It made me realize that when you are an artist, you are often alone but that is part of it and it’s okay. It’s through that alone-ness that you have time to think and create and without that our art wouldn’t be the same.
I love being an artist for the moments of clarity, like this, as being an artist makes me feel like I’m in a very special group even if I never get to see anyone from that group because we are all mostly alone. How ironic.
Thank you for a lovely post to cheer me up. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you for saying this, Jaime! Sooooo true!!!
Aw, that’s nice of you to say. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving Yogimama!
I opened this in my email box this dreary Thanksgiving morning, feeling rather sorry for myself being alone, as my family are not here with me on the this day of family.
But as I read, it took my mind along and I felt I could feel the cool air on my face and moisture run through my hair as I peddled along with you. It made me realize that when you are an artist, you are often alone but that is part of it and it’s okay. It’s through that alone-ness that you have time to think and create and without that our art wouldn’t be the same.
I love being an artist for the moments of clarity, like this, as being an artist makes me feel like I’m in a very special group even if I never get to see anyone from that group because we are all mostly alone. How ironic.
Thank you for a lovely post to cheer me up. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you for saying this, Jaime! Sooooo true!!!
Aw, that’s nice of you to say. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving Yogimama!
I love that, no matter what my mood, art uplifts me….doing it or viewing it. I love the struggle in the making, particularly when you are rewarded by a resolved work. I love that, whenever I walk into my studio I am surrounded by images in all stages of their creation, and this makes me immediately full of ideas and inspiration.
I love that, no matter what my mood, art uplifts me….doing it or viewing it. I love the struggle in the making, particularly when you are rewarded by a resolved work. I love that, whenever I walk into my studio I am surrounded by images in all stages of their creation, and this makes me immediately full of ideas and inspiration.
Beautifully said, beautiful imagery. I can relate to all you have said: going in the opposite direction the majority go, the laughing, the crying; appreciating objects, their pathway to me, their history, and how they become a colleague; the struggle, the victory, the luxury of such great freedom of time and expression,…. Thank you for writing and sharing. I find great comfort and courage to continue through this tribal platform. 🙂
Beautifully said, beautiful imagery. I can relate to all you have said. Thank you for writing and sharing. I find great comfort in this tribal platform. 🙂
I think what most essentially describes an artist is the (compelling) priority to express truthfully. I appreciate (even when I struggle with) the profound dissatisfaction that keeps me pointedly aware of the cost of being less than truthful. It motivates me to live from ‘my artist’.
I’m ever grateful for the larger language of shape and color and texture, and for the community of artist around me, the truth tellers, the courageous explorers who are ready and willing to travel into the void to bring a face to what is not yet seen, a face to the parts of the human experience can never be quite named with words. I can’t imagine navigating the learning edge of my own evolution without them. Thanks and thanks!
I think what most essentially describes an artist is the (compelling) priority to express truthfully. I appreciate (even when I struggle with) the profound dissatisfaction that keeps me pointedly aware of the cost of being less than truthful. It motivates me to live from ‘my artist’.
I’m ever grateful for the larger language of shape and color and texture, and for the community of artist around me, the truth tellers, the courageous explorers who are ready and willing to travel into the void to bring a face to what is not yet seen, a face to the parts of the human experience can never be quite named with words. I can’t imagine navigating the learning edge of my own evolution without them. Thanks and thanks!