There is an artist within all of us

There is an artist within all of us. I recently read this sentiment in both The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity and The Art Spirit. Robert Henri says, “I have no sympathy with the belief that art is the restricted province of those who paint, sculpt, make music and verse. I hope we will all come to an understanding that the material used is only incidental, that there is an artist within every man..” (225). One of Julia Cameron’s basic principles states, “There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life - including ourselves” (3). At first I thought, how can this be? It was such a novel idea to me (Now I’m laughing - they weren’t novels, they were both nonfiction! Anyhoo.). But I am just starting to really get it. And especially for those out there who think, ‘ha! not me’, please keep reading.

There really is an artist within us all. We all just have to look within. We need to forget about supposed tos, doing what we think we ought to and making other people happy. We just need to be open. We just need to be. We need to take that first scary step and try something, anything, to set ourselves free. Free from any expectations and labels. Think back to when you were a kid. Do you remember doing something again and again or all the time? That is likely your art. Your true self before you worried who you were supposed to be. If you’re doing that now, then I am so happy for you! You have done something hard to do, remained true to yourself. If you aren’t doing this thing that brought you immense, unadulterated joy when you were young, then why not?

All that is really needed is being willing to express ourselves while totally being absorbed in it so that we can let the light in, so that we lose track of time, so that we reach what is known as flow. When you reach this state, you aren’t concerned with how people see you anymore, of how you even see yourself, you actually lose that sight and you are just in this state where you are immersed and totally present with what you’re doing. You’re living. It’s not the product of painting or writing or any art that is art, it is actually just the state that you are in when you are being creative that is art. The painting or the finished play or song that you make when you are in the state of art is just a product.

The object of painting a picture is not to make a picture - however unreasonable this may sound. The picture, if a picture results, is a by-product and may be useful, valuable, interesting as a sign of what has past. The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. In such moments of activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a buy-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state (Henri, 159).

You owe it to yourself, to the child within you who knew they were artistic and to the adult today that may have forgotten to try. Take a chance on art and do something to attain the state of being that is so divine. Let’s shake off those bonds. Take that first step. Maybe you have before but you need to take that first step again. Trust yourself. Set yourself free.

Hello, friend. I see you. Now see yourself for who you really are. For the artist within you.

Works Cited

Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1992.

Henri, Robert, and Margery Ryerson. The Art Spirit. J.B. Lippincott Company, 1939.