I was raised to believe that creativity was the essence of humankind, that every being possessed the ability to create, inherently. I grew up in a relatively unique upbrining in NYC. I was raised by a community of artists and my painter father. As a child, I witnessed the different capacities at which artists called themselves artists. In fact, for some time with being a gallery kid myself, I was under the impression that every adult was an artist.
And this is not to say, I grew up in some sort of luxurious manner. I was raised by a partially blind single parent father who worked very hard to provide for the two of us. I grew up in a low income household (s/o Section 8, EBT, school lunch) in a bubble of a building in the heart of NYC. I was granted access to higher education and art studies with the Pell Grant. I grew increasingly aware of the way class played a significant role in my world view. Still, I was bound to follow in my father's footsteps and embrace the artistic lineage he had created for us, despite the adversities.
The truth I have found is that we are the creation of some other, whether it is God(s), Universe(s), or our Mother(s), we owe our existence to some external creative force. That is undeniable. And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, or something, so don't we too have the ability to channel this creative force within ourselves?
Some of us have this creative force in our wombs, some of us in our minds, some of us with our hands and hearts. We create our minutes, moods, memories. We create love, experiences, art and ourselves. We, as creations, have this brilliant and powerful abilitiy to create.
I've met myself plenty of artists, even in my short life time. And I can understand the emotional turmoil that comes with creating and sharing work. The emotional rollercoaster of navigating "the art I enjoy" vs "the art I create." Even with this latest album release, I've found my inner critic to be quite obnoxious with judgement around this or that, not being that or this way.
I recently remembered something I once heard on the internet somewhere. It was something along the lines of "every time that a work of art is made, a miracle has occurred." We are miracles in ourselves, an expression of life. And what we create is a byproduct of that miracle-essence.
And so I'll leave you with this, my comrade in expression and creation. Art is never good or bad. It just is. And that is a miracle.