This month has a theme. Make Art. In the midst of Not Shutting Up for 365 days, I will write about art and make art for the month of October. I will be linked up at thenester.com for her 31 Day Challenge to write one theme for a month. You can find my link in the Too Awesome to Categorize category. Or you can subscribe and get each post sent directly to your e-mail if you don’t want to miss a day.
Today I start the 31 day challenge with a letter to the World. Josh Irby wrote An Open Letter To You From The Rest of The World, an inspiring and motivating challenge to live boldly.
Don’t cheat us out of your story. If you’re not living a better story, there is no one to take your place. Our puzzle will forever be without the you-shaped piece. –Josh Irby
Dear World,
I was afraid to tell you who I am.
If I tell you who I am, you may not like me, and it is all that I have.
You have told me I should dye my hair and cut it short to hide the gray and women over the age of 40 should cut off their long hair. But, I don’t listen to you. I walk past the aisle of hair dye in the store and buy hair ties with no metal clasp to put at the end of my long braid.
You have told me how to dress and what to think. You have told me that real woman wear heels and carry handbags. But I prefer sneakers and a shoulder bag. Heels hurt my feet and I kept losing my red handbag I bought when you told me real women carry handbags.
You have told me I can’t draw and I believed you. I believed the teacher who said, “You can’t draw, Pamela,” I didn’t listen to you about my clothes and my hair and my shoes, but I swallowed the lie about art. I won’t say I am an artist.
I have hidden my sketchbooks from you. Every day I draw cartoons and paint large canvases, but I keep them to myself. My walls are covered with my paintings, but I dont’ share them with the world. You might not like them, and it is all that I have.
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
― Pablo Picasso
You lied to me world. You said there is only one to draw a bird.
The teacher said, “This is how you draw a bird,” The class was told to copy the teachers drawing. We wanted to be loved and sought your approval so we drew the bird to look like the teachers bird, and all the birds in the class looked the same.
We stopped drawing our orange bird with green feathers and blue dots on his feet because the child next to us in kindergarten laughed because we drew something different.
And our orange birds and our red and yellow sardines with blue eyes were silenced because we wanted to fit in and be accepted.
Did your teacher say to you, “You can’t draw?”
Did you believe them?
Your teacher is wrong. You can draw.
Dear World, this month I am going to make art. This month I am going to encourage children who were lied to by you. Children who grew up to be adults who say, “I can’t draw.”
This month we will
.
This month we will stop listening to the lies of the world and we will say, “I can draw. I am an artist.“
Dear World, we are artists and we will make art.
xo
Pamela
Will you make art with me this month?
Please don’t say, “I can’t draw.” You can. Lets do this together.
Would you like to join me this month?
Please tell me in the comments, I would love to chat.
P.S. I will link up to the 31 day posts at the bottom of this post if you want to bookmark this page.
Today is day 1.
day 2: It’s your art. Don’t worry about what people think.
day 3: Stop saying, “I can’t draw. If you eat, you can draw.
day 4: Comparison is the death of joy
day 5: Color outside of the lines + drawing homework
day 6: There are no rules in art
day 7: I had an identity crisis today and didn’t write. Please read day 8.
day 8: There are no rules so quit trying to make them
day 9: Risk failure and try to be Aunt Harriet
day 10: A four hour drive to Virginia on the way to the Storyline Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. We left at 8:00 p.m. and arrived at Kathleen Caron’s at 12:30 a.m. My laptop is dead, please see day #9.
day 11: We left Virginia at 8:00 a.m. and arrived in Nashville, Tennessee at 11:15 p.m.
day 12: Day 1 of the Storyline Conference in Nashville. We heard Donald Miller, Becca Stevens, John Richmond, Shauna Niequist and Bob Goff speak.
day 13: Day 2 of the Storyline Conference in Nashville. Donald Miller, Jia Jiang, and Ryan Forsthoff spoke. Brandon Heath Al Andrews, Joshua Dubois, John Richmond, David Wenzel and Sarah Thebarge spoke at the “Breakout Sessions.”
day 14: We left Nashville at 4:00 a.m. and arrived in Virginia at 5:00 p.m. Kathleen Caron, wrote about our 15 hour trip; sometimes the journey’s worth the destination, and other things i learned at storyline
day 15: We left Virginia at 3:00 a.m. and arrived home in Pennsylvania at 7:45 a.m. How to make art that touches people. Or, How Brandon Heath made me cry
day 16: Be brave and let people see your art.
day 17: Are your secret thoughts positive? Do you say, “I can’t draw?”
day 18: How to draw an egg
day 19: The best advice I got on how to draw: Tokyo Japan
day 20: You are an original. Try and find your own way. Find your “Authentic Swing.”
day 21: Focus on your strengths
day 22: Creating art takes courage. Make art even if no one likes it.
day 23: Betty and Robert have been together for five years. Will he propose tonight?
day 24: Kill the dragon Resistance every morning and work on your art.
day 25: Make time in your day to create. Just say no.
day 26:
day 27, day 28, day 29, day 30, day 31. The end.
