A Commitment to Art

When I think about it, through every aspect of my life, from the time I was old enough to stage a backyard play, or try to convince my mother that I could indeed sell my poetry for enough dough to get my ears pierced ... I have wanted to surround myself with art. I didn't quite know what that meant for a really long time. And in my early twenties, I devoted all my days and energy into an art form with such little and infrequent return, that when I did book a movie, I was so exhausted and insecure about the next acting gig, that I rarely took a moment to look around me and appreciate. I suppose if I had, I would have realized I was going about it all wrong. But that's the thing about your twenties, you think you know everything.

Now that I've had time to marinate on my past, I find that even the smallest amount of art, or artistic people (should it/they be genuine in nature) gives me such a charge of inspiration and joy, that I wonder how I let myself starve for so long.

So when my creative little family got together with a small group of newly acquainted artisans, (in such a strikingly magnificent home) for the Easter holiday yesterday, something inside me awakened.

We were free. Free to dance, play, think, feel, share and imagine. In every direction I turned, there was a little nugget of goodness, something to photograph, something to draw or paint on, a story told that I wanted to write about, a person there, I wanted to know about.

If my husband had informed me sooner, that we were in the company of some real greats, perhaps I wouldn't have been so bold with my own camera, or gyrated so many silly dance moves. But I walked away with such a rush from that powerful drug called ART, that the morning after - I'm still feeling the buzz.

Whatever your art is; be it fashion, literature, painting, music, dance, photography - immerse your world in it. Rip apart that magazine, tack that fabric on the wall, scribble your feelings out loud, stack those books high up to the ceiling, play that vintage record AGAIN. Toast to your world. It will feed your soul. And you'll never go hungry again.