Inspiration can be an innovative or a destructive thing. Innovative in that you can create something that really touches someone and allows them to draw inspiration from you in return. But, on the other hand, inspiration can tear you up inside if you don't let it out. Sitting on a great book idea, an amazing painting concept, a quality craft that you can't wait to put together... all these things can eat away at the very creativity that thrives in all of us. It is hard to accept that many are afraid of inspiration. The ability to think and let your mind wander... what on earth could come out? What honesty would we have to face? What disillusion that we have comfortably been living in would have to be shattered?Pain, while irritating, can be a very comfortable place because it is familiar. Because we know it well. Because it gives us an excuse to stay stuck and never risk. Pain has become a motivator for me in my creative endeavors. Instead of waiting for the pain to subside so that I can work, I am using the pain as a springboard for my creativity to flourish. Instead of trying to work in spite of the pain, I am using the pain as a vehicle for my thoughts, my words, my art.

There is nothing better than being able to create something regardless of how I am feeling. Feel something? Write about it. Feel something? Paint it. Feel something? Make art out of it.

Just make art. No matter what your definition of it is or what your idea of what an artist is, become one today. In your home, in your workplace, in your church, in your kids' playgroup.

Create for the sake of art. Create something beautiful.