I am an artist; I draw, I paint, I play music. But I am also another type of not-so-obvious artist--I am an artist of life. Everyone is, actually.
I recently read a quote that said, "Life is not about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself." This got me thinking...as a person who thrives off of all things creativity-related, how have I not realized this sooner? For years I've been living under the impression that I have to "find myself," but when you really think about it, what is there to find? You are essentially born with the tools you need to tackle the canvas I call life. You are the artist; your task is to create the masterpiece of your life.
As an artist, I took a liking to another quote I saw on Pinterest: "Art school taught me that my greatest tool is myself." Think about it: a paint brush is nothing more than a stick of wood or plastic. When you put it in the hands of an artist, it's everything. You are the paint brush, the pencil, the pastel. Your life begins as a newly blank canvas--how you choose to cover that canvas is entirely up to you as the artist.
Now of course there are different ways to cover a canvas so it reflects your style as the artist. Every piece of art is its own. It's your life, so you aim to choose the right colors, the right brush strokes, the right techniques and so on. Essentially, these basic elements of art are a metaphor for the basic aspects of life--friends, a career path, a significant other, the clothes you wear, etc.
As every artist knows, mistakes are inevitable. Even the most perfected artists are prone to mistakes. With that said, we are incredibly grateful for white paint and erasers. As an artist of life, you are in fact granted your own set of error-erasing materials. I call these choices. You can choose to change the things you don't like about your life--that's the beauty of being an artist...the ability to change. When we make a mistake, we cover it with white paint then continue on with the painting. While we know the mistakes are still there, buried beneath that new coat of paint, they do not reflect the final masterpiece. You can't go back in time an undo your mistakes, but what you can do is choose to turn your life toward a more desirable direction. While the mistakes did happen, they will ultimately become insignificant.
Some people may not consider themselves the "creating" type, and I don't agree with that. If everyone was born living the same exact life, doing the same exact thing, then of course there's no creativity whatsoever. But that's not the case. Your life is unlike anyone else's. You have been creating it without even realizing, and you will continue to create and erase until you are happy with the end result. An artist's work isn't finished until he/she is happy with what's on the canvas. You create your life. You create yourself.
