Midlife Creative

I grew up defining an artist as “a person who draws or paints and makes a living selling their art”, so you can imagine how surprised I was when someone I respected greatly started telling me I was “an artist” I just smiled everytime she would tell me this, but in my head I would argue, “I’m not an artist!”

Have you found yourself meeting artists on a daily basis? After my friend told me I was an artist, I started meeting such incredibly creative people wherever I went. I began to wonder if they were being sent to me or if I was simply drawn to creative people.

In my adult life, my definition of artist expanded to include actors, playwrights, musicians, dancers, screenwriters, photographers, and any other creative person who made a living doing their art. I was still stuck on this idea that to be an artist, you had to make money from your art. The funny thing is that I have always made money teaching piano lessons, but somehow that didn’t count.

When we moved to St Paul, we found ourselves surrounded by creative people. We were less than a mile from the Schmidt Artist Lofts and a block from Art House North, another community for artists. My kids started going to an art focused elementary school and an arts high school. There were plays to attend, art openings on weekends, and my daughter got involved in a short film. I felt strangely in awe of these creative people and wanted to be around them. I started finding out that even my friends who I thought were “normal” had without my knowledge published a book, played Chopin behind closed doors, and previously owned a sewing business.

There were artists everywhere I turned. I started to realize that we are ALL creative. Every single one of us is born creative. Somehow we talk ourselves out of it and very few claim the identity of “artist”

Why? Why do we not have permission to use this term to describe ourselves? Why can only a few people join this artist club? What would happen if we all started calling ourselves artists? I am going to give it a try. If I call myself a writer, maybe I will become one? Maybe I already am?

What do you wish you could be? Set aside the idea of making money, and look purely at what makes you come alive. What do you enjoy creating? Speak it out, and then start doing it. Call yourself an artist. I believe in you!!