“They call me the painter of dancers. They don’t understand that the dancer has been for me a pretext for painting pretty fabrics and for rendering movement.”
-Edgar Degas
I have been one of those people who referred to Degas as the painter who loved to paint dancers. It never occurred to me that he might be focusing on another aspect of the painting. In learning this, I look at how work with fresh eyes. This is one of those reasons it’s so important to share our art, thoughts and ourselves. It is an example of why it is important not to let anyone silence you, especially YOU.
You see, I have been comparison-shopping myself again. Yes, I have to admit that I have been comparing others outsides with my insides and, as will often happen if you engage in this behavior, I have found myself lacking and I started to get quiet. I’m not sure why that happens. Perhaps it is because the closer you get to your own truth the louder that evil Inner Critic shouts. Mine has been screaming at me so I know I am moving in the right direction; it’s just doesn’t always feel good.
What if Degas hadn’t shared this? This is the thought that propels me out of my self-imposed silence. What if he had accepted the labels people put on him and just painted paintings about dancers? His work would not have had nearly as powerful an effect as it does today.
If we comparison shop ourselves or spend our lives caring about other’s approval we are doomed to become a prisoner of our making. When we create what we think people want they will not want it. It’s just a fact. You will not be the only one creating for others so they will shop around looking for the best price instead of the most original work.
But when YOU create from the heart, when you listen to your own voice, when YOU allow yourself to be driven by what is within YOU and share YOUR voice that is powerful. Without even realizing it, without realizing they have been searching for it people will want your work because it is a unique expression but don’t let that be the reason to create. Create because you want to explore the landscape of your own soul. Create because you want to celebrate the body and mind you have been given. Create to inspire yourself. Create because you want to celebrate you. Create because you can’t help yourself.
Though the saying is highly overused, there is NO one in the world like you. Yes, you and I could tell a story about shoes but we will never, ever tell the story, paint the story, and sculpt the story and so on, the same way. Never. Our expression is unique.
I have to ask you – do you want to risk it – the fear, the vulnerability, all of it and share what’s in your heart OR would you rather get to the end of your life and wonder what would have happened, what might have been different if you lived your truth?
I have written myself into a wild, celebratory frenzy right here on this post. I want ..
To share more color, more words, more love, more tears, more moments of wearing my heart on my sleeve, more moments of ecstasy, more moments of Inner Critic battling, more joy, more quiet thoughts, more dancing, more laughter, more ridiculous jokes, more mad times…
I am good right now just as I am and I long to share more here and in the world. There is room for my expression. I don’t need to force it. I don’t need to be like anyone else. I don’t need to create for approval or allow people to put me in a box with an affixed label. All I need to do is be Me….scary, vulnerable, yes but SO necessary. I forget that. That is not something truly, whole heartedly encouraged in our society so sometimes we need to remind each other.
Tell me…what do you want to share more of right now? Are you being as YOU as you can be? Do you comparison shop yourself or do you know within that YOU are so much more??
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