Purpose & Art

A few years ago, I was sitting & contemplating my purpose or my calling. A lot of people call this by a variety of words, such as your mission or your goal, whatever you want to call it, I was thinking about what I had to offer the world and what would the world desire to receive from me.

I realized that my overarching "calling" was to encourage and inspire others. I also knew I wanted to be a painter. This seemed kind of funny because painters spend a lot of time alone in art studios. How would I do this through my art? I also realized that the paintings I was working on were not spelling out my purpose, they were a little more quiet and much more subtle. 

Then I went through my "creative crisis". I wasn't getting very far at all in anything. So I began searching for resources. I realized that I had to encourage and inspire myself! So I looked for these voices in books, other authors who speak of this creative adventure called life & art. 

This was the time I reference when I began writing here on Art Nurture. It was a time in which I was on a journey to get back to nurturing my own creativity. Through this adventure, which is now two years old, I found that I was inadvertently realizing my dream of encouraging and inspiring others. I have received amazing feedback and I look forward to seeing how this will grow in the future. I look forward to developing more classes and community here on Art Nurture to better serve others through encouragement and inspiration. The cool thing is, I'm now making more art than ever! I hope to hear that the same is true for you in the future. 

We are farmers to our creativity and we cultivate in our lives the cool things we want to see happen. Just like a painting or a song do not happen merely from thought, but also from doing and also from encouragement throughout the hard work of the doing. I'm hoping we can build more of a community to help each other reach our creative potential and see amazing things happen for one another. 


As I am sitting here in my studio, taking a break from painting to write, I am thinking back to my college days of dreaming and considering my purpose and art and all of that stuff, which I am still challenged by daily. Sometimes I think my art is moving forward, sometimes I feel like it is stagnant, sometimes I have fear, sometimes I am hopeful. Sometimes I am confident in my purpose and my intentions, sometimes I am doubtful. 

But as I consider all of these things in purpose and art, I am working it out... and I hope you are too. 

Let me know your thoughts.