-Maya Angelou
One of my very favorite things is to watch young artists develop their talents and grow. I love showcasing their work and talking about them (bragging, really). I’ve shared some of my eldest son’s writing before, and recently my daughter’s poetry. (I’m waiting to see where my middle child’s artistic interests are.)
I also love sharing my Kelsey’s link to her growing photography business, and if you’ve visited my photo site, you know how much of Nic I’ve shared.
This is Kelsey. She’s awesome!
This is Nic. He’s awesome!
But today I want to share Dakota with you. We’ve known him since we first moved to Colorado over 5 years ago. Not only have we seen him grow up, but we’ve also gotten to hear some of his music through the years. Just bits here and there. Until now.
This morning my husband and I watched a video of a song he just wrote and posted for others to see. I’m super impressed with the many talents that stand out in one video – guitar playing, singing, and poetry/songwriting – and I immediately asked him if I could blog about him and share the video. So, please watch it:
As the years have gone by, I think art has gotten shoved further and further away, is less often encouraged, and is often let go of in favor of what is practical, sadly. I realize we have to be realistic in our lives and do what we must to support our families and ourselves, but I don’t agree that we should ever stop being artists. I think we should paint the world, photograph the love, crochet hugs, write our hearts out, and sing at the top of our lungs. I think art should be seen, heard, and experienced. And I think young artists like my children, Kelsey, Nic, and Dakota should be supported and lifted up, mentored and taught, without treating their arts as if they are unimportant or their talents our competition that we must hide, lest they be seen and chosen over us. (Remember: I think there’s enough to go around.)
Your talents are a gift. Use them! I support you all 100%. I hope my readers will do the same. Whoever the young artists are in your life, let them know you care, you support them, and you will continue to support them as they grow and learn and spread joy through their arts.
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Elise - This post is a VERY weird coincidence for me. My youngest daughter (the same age as yours) is an artist in a house full of two engineers, one future engineer and one future bio technologist. The poor girl:) She also is very good at math and science like the rest of us and I think I just assumed that she would eventually get a job in a similar area. I now believe that I was not supportive enough of her artistic side. I THOUGHT I was being supportive and proud but being an artist through and through she was more sensitive than I thought. I have recently come to fully realize this and had already decided to be more supportive. Please understand that’s a hard thing for us scientific types to do! Ha ha ha! Yes, this post was a weird coincidence that CONFIRMED my new found attitude! Thank you for a great post. PS She’s actually quite talented and has already won awards for her art.