August is often a month when I unplug, spending more time with pencils and paint than with my iPhone or a keyboard.
It's when I take myself on artist's dates (thank you, Julia Cameron) to local galleries, book stores, and outdoor spaces where I can observe humanity from a different angle.
Art, like life, is grounded in energy and color and movement. I'd also add observation.
Sitting down to a blank canvas gives us the chance to dive head first into life through our imaginations, combining what we observed with what we believe can become true.
Seeing what other people have designed, made, painted, sculpted, written, sewn, and/or grown offers insight into what it means to be human no algorithm can touch.
It doesn't matter what comes out.
What matters is the act of creating because we can.
Similar to writing, drawing challenges our brains to think differently, to pull from places we don't always go while freeing us from regular routines which -- while comforting -- can become stale and boring.
I am always amazed at how much better I feel after a session with my colored pencils or paint set, how problems I had before I sat down to create seem to solve themselves.
Art for the win, for sure.
In August as well as anytime the mood strikes to take ourselves out of what is familiar into the complete and beautiful unknown.
Art for the win.
