Painter here

I have always loved to draw but I didn't start painting until my mid twenties. I fell in love with paint. Everything about it. Paint in my nails, on my clothes, sometimes in my hair, didn't matter. I don't draw very much anymore but I paint almost every day.

After my first painting at around twenty-five years old I looked at it and loved what came out of me. I judged it though. It didn't look like paintings I was familiar with. It didn't look like a real person. Who was I to call myself a painter? Except for the two art classes I took in middle school I had no training. Maybe this could be something I did for fun on the weekends. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

I wish I could talk to that twenty-four year old woman. I wish I could tell her to keep painting and never stop. Keep telling stories with color and canvas and brush. To keep showing art. To look within for any encouragement needed. I wish I could tell her to take "But that looks like a child did it" like a high compliment. I wish I could be the voice in her head when others tried to discourage her from pursuing her dreams. What did ANY of them know about being an artist? Where was the art on ANY of their walls? What did ANY of them know about being a full time entrepreneur? NOTHING! NONE of them knew ANYTHING about the path set before her by God? What did ANY of them even CARE about her happiness? I wish I was there for her.

I give great thanks that I am here for myself now. I give thanks for these ears that listen to God's direction and approval. I give thanks that my happiness is important to me. Sometimes I have to fight for it. Sometimes my decisions don't make sense to people around me. That has stopped being relevant to me. I give thanks for that too.

To the painters out there who feel peace and ease in the messy of paint but have no formal training, just a love and a burning desire to keep creating, keep on. Get more and more free with every brushstroke. I knew a man once who told me that I shouldn't fall in love with my art. I don't agree with that. Love it! Every stick figure, funny face, off proportion, bad shading, all of it. Why not?

Let's pull out those canvases. Let's brighten up this world. You want formal training, get it. But don't wait until then before you express yourself. You only have your gut as your guide, use it. Who are we to call ourselves artists? We are. I see you.