VVQ

If you have found your way here, it is not through a search engine. You have found your way here, to my little space on the web because either you, or your friend, has had one of my bookmarks placed in your hands. A human hand, a human connection. You are not a metric on a Google search, you know me, have found me, through the real world. And so, friend, welcome to my place.

As you look around, you’ll notice that I’m in the process of building, exploring, and learning. And I hope that excites you as much as it excites me. This is my journey to move the balance of my time from being a consumer to becoming a creator, from being told who I am, to being who I am.

This does not have the polish of an art gallery, this is more like an art studio, and so welcome to this behind the scenes view of my creativity. I hope for this to be an inside view of an artist’s heart as she works out how to share what she loves with friends. As you walk through this vulnerable and very imperfect place, I hope that you will be inspired to create something like this yourself. Not something perfect, but something evolving, towards, you. 

So much out there in the world is perfect or aspires to be perfect. Perfectly made, perfectly displayed, perfectly reproduced. And I feel we all are trained to aspire to that, whether it’s a perfect test score, or perfect body. But anything living, life, is organic, changing, messy, and mistakey. I believe surrounding our lives with too much perfection and perfect products, and perfect websites can be negative. Sometimes it can make you feel ‘don’t even try unless you can deliver perfect’. So, don’t completely surround yourself with artificial productions and perfections, or you will lose what it is to recognize and cherish the beauty and the imperfection of being human.

Being in creative circles I have seen this idea of perfection creating shame and preventing new artists from sharing their work, and the joy of being accepted wherever you are in your creative journey. So, I am saying ‘no’. I say start, I say do messy, do mistakey, and be brave enough to show others, as you evolve and grow through those things. It’s ok to be messy, ok to be mistakey, and to choose those who journey with you, as this happens. Choose friends. So, friend, welcome.

And so dear friend, you will then understand my one request of you. My request is this, that only if you must, only if you are compelled, and only with the greatest discernment, would you tell others of what you have found here. Because a thing becomes a treasure, not through popularity, but through being loved, and being given the grace to accept its imperfections. We all know how cruel the critics can be, and I don’t need to be told how imperfect my work is, I already know. 

My greatest desire is to know each person in the village of people who visit here, and to inspire each of you to reach into the creative part of you, to do the same. Become creator, and engage with the journey of courage needed to show what you are making and reaching for.

I believe the true expression of the human soul can only ever be given by a human soul, maybe imitated, but never replaced. And so the only way to never be replaced by anything artificial is to be fully you, fully human, and creative as only a human soul can be.