Yes you. Do that thing you enjoy making.

Even if _____________ (insert fave excuse here).

Because, you never know who, what, where, when and how it will impact someone. And that someone could be YOU!

Once upon a time, I had the point of view that I couldn’t create because someone else already probably made it.  I was also guilty of waiting to create before it was really great to show it to the world.

And then I realized that something that I look at almost daily reminds me to “just create already!”

Years ago, when I was 16, I came up with a strategy to get away from the consumerism of Christmas gifts and part of my plan was for each family member to make something handmade and gift it to each other.

The night before Christmas Eve gift giving, I heard my dad, an artist, in his study quickly making up gifts for my sister and I. Very last minute. I recall being a bit miffed that he spent so little time and I had put lots of thought into my homemade gifts for everyone. Which, to be honest, I cannot recall what they were.

Finally, on that particular first homemade Christmas Eve, we found out what my dad had been creating.
He gave my sister and me each a painting. To be sure, he never had made us our own paintings before. For this reason, these paintings were special! Mine was of a colorful fish with the scent of fresh paint still there. I loved it!

Briefly, that little painting, framed in a 1970’s chrome frame, has traveled with me for 40+ years. And I get to see it on my bathroom wall daily.

In Summary . . .

My dad’s art. That mod fish painting. Was it his best work ever? Not so much. Did he struggle over deciding if he should paint me a fish? Doubt it. My point is that he just made it.

That he created it, regardless, added a spark of joy to my life that keeps gifting to this day. Just looking at it puts a smile on my face.

My dad died in 2011 and I must say this funny little fish painting reminds me to make my art in the world, regardless of the stories I tell myself not to.