For Yourself.
One to five percent draw for a living; everyone else is free – to draw, sing, sculpt, and be silly, for no one's approval.
The reason not to start is always ready: I draw terribly. Bella runs the honest numbers on it – what fraction of the world draws well enough to be bought? One percent? Five? – and notices what the numbers actually mean: everyone else who draws, draws for themselves. The talent bar guards a profession, not a pleasure.
This is the claim this whole site stands on, said at kitchen-table height: what is made from joy needs no approval, because its worth is settled at the source, not at the reception. The 44 Ways of Creation hanging in the gallery here were made exactly that way – by listening, not by qualifying. And the line about her daughter – may she try everything, draw, dance, be silly, simply Live – is the counter-inheritance to the have-tos of her last post: permission, passed down on purpose.
She ends with an assignment that isn't one: what have you been postponing? Try it. Take the pleasure.
I kept searching for a hobby – drawing, or singing, or maybe embroidery and so on. But every time I thought: I draw terribly, and with embroidery my hands grow out of the wrong place too, and so on.
And recently, discussing it with my husband, I got to wondering: where does that come from? Because if you look at the whole world – what percent of the population draws well? Whose works get bought, for whom is it actually a job? 1%? 5%? The rest draw for themselves. Same with singing, dancing and so on. You don't have to be an outstanding artist to draw – you can do all of it FOR YOURSELF. For the pleasure of it.
I want to raise my daughter so that she tries everything. Drawing, dancing, sculpting, creating, being silly and simply Living. For herself, with pleasure, without all these “what will people think” and “but there's no talent” and so on.
Let's create! What did you want to try but kept putting off? Do it, try it! Take your pleasure in it 🩷
Thank you for reading.
If her words reached somewhere mine don't – good. That's what this blog is for. Take what fits and leave the rest.
– Jan