The Art of Desire...

“I'd like to be able to draw, but I can’t even draw a stick figure.” It’s a common statement I hear when people find out I’m an artist. My response is always the same. “If you can write your name, you can learn to draw.”

While there are definitely artists who are gifted, the skill of making art is not a gift at all. It is just that, a skill, and skills can be learned, and developed. The only thing a person really needs to make art, is desire. If you have the desire, you can learn the skill. Then, someone like me who has years of drawing, and painting experience, and even a college education in it, can show you the technique to develop the skill. Then the art of drawing, and painting can be developed, and that’s when the fun really begins.

"Hello, Yellow Iris" Ink & Watercolor

You also need the tools to make art. Meaning, you literally need something to make marks with, and a surface to make the marks on. I started with crayons on my parent’s living room walls when I was a little girl, but that’s just me (and it’s not recommended).

I guess my point in writing this is, if you ever thought ‘painting looks fun, I wish I could do that, or I’d like to learn to draw some day, or I wish I had time to learn to paint, or I'd like to draw, but I can't even draw a stick figure’, or if there is anything somewhere inside you that feels stifled, a creativity longing to get out, that desire is the only quality you need to be an artist. If you set time aside to express your creativity, and have a few tools to make art, your desire will take you a long way.

Thank you for reading,

Michelle