Become Who YOU Want to Become

I have a fun project going with a very creative friend. We both have the same watercolor notebook, and we have challenged each other to fill the pages with experiments as well as new ideas. This pieces is what I created on my very first page. It is small and in the lower right hand corner of the page…

It is better to be high-spirited even though
one makes more mistakes,
than to be narrow-minded and all too perfect.

– Vincent Van Gogh – 1890

As I open this blank notebook, full of empty pages with soooo much potential for fun, I want to be high-spirited! I have learned that some of my best learnings have come from my mistakes, experiments and things I thought would fail and ended up being amazing! I am excited to have people who will support and encourage me to be ME, not exactly like the workshop or online post I just read. To be an individual in a world that rewards ‘likes’ and internet sensations. So here’s to the spaces to be imaginative and the people who support us along this journey.

I like the fact that these words come from Vincent Van Gogh. He had a very amazing and unique style and suffered from very deep depression. He dared to do what he wanted, not what was in vogue at the time. He challenged the creative geniuses of his time with his style, and lived a very meager and emotionally havoc-filled life. His brother was his only patron. His brother actually bought all of Vincent’s work while he was alive so that Vincent had income to support himself. His brother was inspired by Vincent’s creative courage and use of color. How thankful we all are for people who support us in our creativity AND in living the life we have chosen.

Be it a scrap piece of paper you paint or that in-process novel, the squiggles you doodle during meetings, or the miraculous way you have decorated your spaces – creativity comes in all shapes and sizes. NEVER apologize for what, or where or how you create. The point is not to do it right, the point is to just go ahead and do it. When Vincent Van Gogh died his brother put all the artwork he bought from Vincent up for sale and made millions. No one appreciated Vincent’s talent while we was alive except for his brother. Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous piece – Orchard of Cypress – sold for $117 million dollars at auction in 2022.

Let me encourage you to be high-spirited and create whatever it is you want. There are people who will support you no matter what…find them and keep them close for they are the people who will help you become who you want to become.