Some people seem to put a lot of expectations and rules onto their art practice. This must work for them, but it turns me off. Creatively, I do what I want to do. WHATEVER I want to do. You see, creativity for me, means being me. Being free to be me no matter what someone else says I should do or be. If you want to be like someone else, then study them, and do it like they do. Copy them. But if you want to express what makes you unique, then do it your way. Be inspired and influenced by what you love. Recognize that you are a part of this universe, and your exhalations are the exhalations of the universe through you. But recognize that you are a unique manifestation or incarnation of the universe, and your voice is valid. Not only valid, but a necessary part of making this all complex and beautiful. We’re all made of the same stuff. I’m not asking you to be an anarchist… to rebel against every societal norm. Try it if you want, but you’re still a part of it, and everything you feel runs through everyone and everything. That may sound contradictory. Spark your spark. Express your expression. Be you. Be your unique self within an ocean of unique selves. You see things I don’t see. You feel things I don’t feel. I need you. I need you to teach me. To inspire me. I try to imagine the first person to create something. To paint on a rock face, or doodle an image in the sand. Holy cow! And the others who saw it. What must they have thought, seeing someone sketch their thoughts or visions on a substrate. They must have been blown away. I’ve heard it said that those early painters weren’t the artist, but the great spirit created the images through them. Thousands and thousands of years have passed, and I still believe it. Those images come from the same place. I think of it as the collective unconscious… the stream that runs through all of us. It compels some of us to leave our marks behind on cave walls or canvases. Images that will endure after our brief sojourn in these bodies. This is temporary. This ability to hold a paintbrush or pencil. Do it or don’t do it. Either way, this is your chance.