In which I should be making art

I have been thinking about Art a lot. These thoughts have been mostly along the lines of I’m not good enough/I don’t do enough of it. I have been dwelling, in a fairly meloncholy way, on jealousy and a sense of failure. I used to do a lot of art in a structured way: art lessons at school, creative writing lessons or projects, running my jewellery business, or even the way my degree inspired writing. All of these creative outlets have dropped off along the way and I am really in need of a new kick. I need to make things and share things and just see how it goes.

I have lately found myself surrounded by good advice on how to do just that. I think everyone with an interest in creativity should be following Brain Pickings, one of the most beautiful blogs on the internet. It is a well of inspiration, but amongst the thoughts it reaches out with (of love, Lego and lost letters) are words about writing and making. There are so many snippets of advice about originality, audience and self-doubt.

The advice is generally: just do art.
Like Neil Gaiman says in so many ways.
Sometimes like this:
“When people come to me and say, ‘I want to be a writer. What should I do?’, I say, ‘You have to write.’ And sometimes they say, ‘I’m already doing that. What else should I do?’ I say, ‘You have to finish things.’ Because that’s where you learn from; you learn by finishing things.”
(Sometimes like this)

Like Vihart says:

 
Like Tanya Davis says:

.

I find myself humming
‘Art, art, art I want you.
Art you make it pretty hard not to.
And I’m trying hard here to follow you,
but I can’t always tell if I ought to’.

A few months ago I left a job and bought a sketchbook. For me a new sketchbook is a world of possibilities. So I wrote a couple of poems and sketched some maps, designed some Lego figures. Then that little burst of energy was gone. So I am going to do my best to take all this advice and just sit down and write. Me and the boy are going to set aside some time every week to do out Things. His with his viola and me with some writing or crafting or drawing.

 I hope it works!