Too afraid to call myself an artist

When did I decide I was an artist?

I’d been ‘dabbling’ with art for a few years when a friend of mine who ran a local art group suggested I put a piece up in a mini show in a local café.

Though slightly terrified I entered a small piece about 10″x10″ of a moon with a female face, I called her ‘The Woman in the Moon’.

Putting myself out there

On the day I went to hang her, I was there with the other artists who were confidently jockeying for the best spots in the Café and feeling very inadequate. Wondering if they were judging my amateur attempt at art.

My friend took my painting and hung it in a pretty good spot, it was going to be there for a month. So after a coffee and cake, I left my moon painting assuming I’d be picking her up in a month. “See you next month”, I thought as I got into my car.

A month rolled by and we were there to collect our pieces and deliver a new one. So I turned up still feeling like a fraud with a new piece in hand. But when I arrived my moon painting was nowhere to be seen.

“Had the Café owner taken it down because he felt it was rubbish?” I thought

But when I went to ask where it was he was grinning at me. “On the first day of the exhibition a visitor to the town saw your painting and took it right away she couldn’t wait a month – she wanted it as a special gift for her daughter”, he said as he handed me some cash. I was stunned.

In that moment I finally felt I was an artist.

Looking back now I realise that was not when I actually became an artist

The fact someone handed over money for my work did not validate me. I had always been an artist. In the act of creating for myself, and all the messy pieces I had made – that was when I was becoming an artist.

I have a challenge for you

So my creative friend I challenge you to email me with a photo of you holding something you’ve created and declaring “I AM AN ARTIST” and yourself. Or paste it on my Living Life In Colour Facebook page.

Now go! I can’t wait to see you as your glorious artistic self.

Angela xx