Five Reasons Why You're Already An Artist

As a creative, I'm on a mission. My mission (one of many), is to reform regular, everyday individuals into outright artists. Yep. For real. And I'm here to convince you it's possible.

As an educator in art and academic subjects, I can't tell you the number of times I've heard people young and old say "I'm just not an 'artsy' person." or "I love art, but I'm not an artist." or "(insert name here) is so much better than me at xyz." I've heard it so many times, that I decided to make it a serious intention to convince anyone who will give me their attention, that they can create just as easily as a fully trained creative person.

And I'm not simply talking about art as in music, painting, drawing, drama, etc...I'm referring to the art of creation.

Creation involves several aspects, which are innate, but not limited to the following:

1. At our very core, humans are interested in creating. It's what we do. We create the homes we live in, the structures we operate in on a daily basis, our routines, our goals, our families, our vacations, our dream homes, our vocation, and so on. We plan these activities based on what feels good to us and has meaning for us.

If you enjoy cooking, you're an artist. A mechanic, an artist. A stay-at-home mom, an artist. If you run a marathon, you're an artist, and the same goes for if you garden and grow your own food. Just like a musician or writer or actor, if you have a vision for an outcome, and you perform the actions that propels you to make that outcome happen, you are an artist.

2. Creative endeavors are a practice, meaning in order to achieve our intentions, we must engage in them repeatedly to gain mastery. Once a level of mastery is reached, the task or practice (this definition of the word 'practice' means repetition, drill or study) activities become creative, simply when we get to the place where it puts us in a zone or a place where we have a singular focus, or most of the time, there is ease in what we're doing.

If you're engaging in something of interest, then the combination of practice and interest leads to mastery.

3. Mastery simply means that we eventually have a knowledge, understanding, comprehension, or familiarity with what we're engaged in. Through our practices of art-making or creative or even repetitive tasks, we reach a skillfulness that brings us to the place where we enjoy what we're doing so much we do it over and over again.

This isn't to say that we won't bump up against roadblocks or difficulties that need to be solved---this is where the creative process can get really interesting and fulfilling---but in general at this point we've reached a meditative state, where that which we're developing, is done with ease and flow. In other words we're in the 'zone' or a meditative state.

4. A meditative state enables us 'to be' in an introspective, reflective space. While most of us think of meditation as sitting still for minutes at a time, any activity that brings us into the flow or theta state, will increase the connection between the conscious and unconscious mind.

Once we're in this state, connecting with our flow, we become creators and artists, as ideas that eluded us before are suddenly clear and present, and we act on our intuitive messages.

5. Intuition is the result of being in the flow state, and comes from utilizing all of the above steps into alignment with what feels light, easeful and joyful. Chances are we've all experienced these feelings at some point; this is the creative, art-making state.

Allow yourself and time to redefine what art-making and creativity means, and give ourselves the gift to just 'be' in this peaceful state more often.