I wrote this out on a social media post about 5 years ago, but it is worth restating every single time I can remember.
The worst thing you can ever tell an artist:
“It’s just a drawing/picture/painting/doodle…”
This is the one sentence that degrades all of the work put into the craft we have chosen. Every minute, every hour, every YEAR is dedicated to improving our skills. You may see something that took a couple of hours, or maybe a couple of days, to create, but in actuality, it took us a LIFETIME to complete it.
Every work we bring to life is getting us closer to our vision of perfection that we will *never* achieve. Everything we do is a creation from our hearts and souls. This is what we were destined to do and nothing else can fill the holes in our lives like art can.
A pencil, brush, or chisel in our hands is a tool that we have studied for (in a lot of cases) decades. It is our passion. Our lives.
It doesn’t matter if you like the work or not. Art is not meant to please everyone and everyone will not like all art. It is a matter of taste. Some like realism; others like abstract. Some like handcrafts; others like woodworking. Some like impressionism; others like modern arts.
If you like an artist, let them know. If you don’t, instead of tearing them down, find another artist that you can lift up.
Just keep that in mind as you see the beautiful works flow through your social media feeds and through your local galleries. Take a minute to appreciate the efforts and let the artist know you appreciate it.
A little love goes a LONG way.
