What Is Your Art?

Painting?

Photography?

Woodworking?

Or perhaps you step into your creativity in another way.

My mother was an amazing seamstress—she could sew outfits for our entire family; take any dress apart and put it back together. She decorated school bulletin boards without any ready-made images, but simply with paper, pens, and a pair of scissors. How she put together Easter baskets and Christmas stockings was a form of art in itself.

But art is not merely an expression of who we are. 

It can also be a lifeline—a means of making sense of the chaos happening around us.

Influential actress and teacher Stella Adler said that “Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one.”

What art do you have that reminds you that you have a soul?

Perhaps it’s creating just that right playlist. 

Watercolor.

Or going to the theater.

I know someone who likes to create paper mobiles. Another friend was a Studio Art major in college and connected to her favorite—bronzing—only in her final year.

We have to find our form of art—what is it that speaks to you?

Sometimes, it may be a classic form. But other times, finding our art is subtler.

My partner puts together perennial gardens in our yard—blooming with every color of day lilies, bee balm, peony, and phlox—lined with creatively shaped rocks that he finds in the woods. 

One of my dear friends also has a keen artistic eye—which anyone can see simply by how she puts her outfits together. When I asked if she was ever a visual artist herself, she said she loved interior architecture. 

“I’ve always been interested in how people come together in different spaces,” she said. “Our environment shapes us in many ways. I go to some places and they look like Restoration Hardware. There’s no warmth. There’s no personality,” she said. “I think people should be comfortable.”

And you can see her connection to that in how she puts her living spaces together.

On a girls’ trip at a VRBO recently, I challenged another friend who is a talented cook to make a cake with what she could find in the cupboards.

She made a delicious one using olive oil, chocolate chips, Greek yogurt, and strawberries.

(We joked that thank goodness, she left out the can of cream of mushroom soup.)

The group of us went to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, which houses the world’s largest collection of folk art. 

Folk art is cool because it’s created by people not formally trained in art—with locally available materials and reflecting the culture and values of the artist. 

We saw telephone wire art from South Africa—once used as currency in the 16th century—which later became a form of escape for black slaves staying awake on watch at night. There was an exhibit of prison art—including stunning paño art from Mexican-American inmates who drew on bed sheets and handkerchiefs.

There was also an exhibit from Ukraine where artists have turned elements of war into art.

It was a profound to explore 130,000 objects of art from over 100 countries—to immerse ourselves in things that have been created by human hands expressing some part of themselves. 

Some of the folk art was crude, but some was detailed and quite ornate and lovely.

One South African artist who was part of the collection, Muziwandile Hadebe, said of a piece of art, “This is not just an artwork, the soul of the person is also in this.”

What forms of art resonate most for your soul, for who you are?

How might you step more deeply or regularly into your favorite forms of art?

And what tiny glimpses of your soul might you leave behind for others to take in? 

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