Be You

If there was just one life lesson I could pass on to my daughters and to every woman I meet (artist or otherwise) - it would be to honour thyself. In other words - BE YOU.

Look, you may not know exactly ‘how’ to do that at first, but believe me when I say that you can figure out the details of honouring yourself as you go along - just commit to making it foundation stone number one.

Start with your values - do you know them?

Honour what ignites and oxygenates you.

Too much life and creativity is lost trying to be, or live up to, other’s ideas of who and what we should be. No wonder so many of us don’t fully embrace our creativity until the second or third phases of our lives.

Between the fear mongering we’ve heard since childhood that art and creativity isn’t a credible pathway to anything, to the whole weird ideology most of us swallowed that you’ve either got it or you don’t. - it’s a wonder any of us managed to get where we were destined.

The idea that artists are either ‘gifted’ or ‘lucky’ is nonsense.

The belief that artist success depends on a magical formula known only to the chosen few - also nonsense.

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The road to artistic success is simple (note I said simple - not easy) and it is paved with wonderful things

Courage - be courageous/ surround yourself with those who encourage (be kind to those that don’t but what do they really know!

All you need is the desire - the leaning - the willingness to breathe life into that part of yourself that yearns to play and make,