The Community of Creativity

I admit it. I have a big blog monkey on my back. For the last two weeks, I've been in major blog withdrawal while my computer usage has been so limited. I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for my new laptop, so I can resume my maniacal art posting. My favorite thing to do every morning, when I first awaken, is to sneak a peek at my blog to see a new comment or piece of art from one of you. Almost a year ago, when I first started my blog, I would never have thought that a little thing like an on-line journal would change my life so much. I never thought that having a blog would make me an artist, but it did. Inexplicably. Every time I made a card or a journal page, I showed it to you, and you responded. You made me want to do another and another, and, when I looked at your art, I learned how to do new things. Your work made me want to stretch and learn, and I did. We talked and shared and encouraged each other and, suddenly, I felt like what I had always wanted to be: an artist in a community of other artists. You me helped me make a life as an artist by giving to me and allowing me to give to you in return. So many of you shared your techniques and enabled other people to try to do what you had done. You weren't threatened or worried that someone would copy you. I followed your steps and imitated you, and, because of your generosity, the doubt and secret fears that had stifled me were gone. I learned so much because of your generosity, and I have the courage now to paint intuitively and boldly (like you see in the painting below, Creative Therapy). Unlike the competitive students I'd met in my college commercial art program, you cheered me on; you wanted me to succeed. You weren't the least bit afraid I would steal your thunder or get the recognition you deserved. I became a part of an ever-growing web of sharing and creating that grows and nurtures and makes the world more beautiful. My world has a whole new dimension now, and what was missing now fills me and makes me whole.

"Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." (Norman MacEwan)

Love,
Alberta