The summer I was 12 I tucked my leftover art supplies from ART 7 in my backpack and asked my mother to buy me a few fresh canvases. That summer I tried to reproduce some of the projects I’d done that year from memory. It included a fan brush, some acrylic paint in whites and blues and a mountain snow scene.
I tried for a few weeks at the kitchen table. I wasn’t very good, but it met a need in me.
I just want to MAKE something, Mom. I don’t care if it’s cookies or a collage. I just want to make something.
That was when I was a middle schooler.
When I was 28 and in the middle of the worst year of my life, someone suggest I get out my angst on an art canvas. I went to the art store and plunked down my credit card for some big canvases, some paint in odd colors and a packet of brushes.
I painted with loud music in headphones at my own kitchen table and tried desperately to express the hatred and fear that I was feeling. It did not meet any need in me. I didn’t feel satisfied, but instead felt emptier when I was through.
My eight-year-old went to and art camp last week at her school. She painted and collaged, she mod podged and watercolored. She had a blast. It culminated in an art show at the end of the week and we came home with all of her work.
It inspired me. This week at the Markley House has been home week. I declared it such at the end of and busier-than-summer-ever-should-be week last week. Sigh.
We were so exhausted that I vowed that the last few days of July for us would be spent primarily at home. Aside from the occasional outing to dance class or the stables, we’ve been at home A LOT. So we broke out the art supplies.
I just want to MAKE something, has been Hope’s attitude ever since her camp.
Micheal’s had packages of 10 art canvases (8×10) for $20 bucks and the acrylics were on sale for 57 cents each. Every day this week each of the girls has painted a canvas. We’ve painted flowers, beach scenes, trees in the snow and everything in between. As they dry I’m nailing them up on the wall in a collage format in their toy area. I’m not a decorator but I’m pretty proud of our mutual productivity. We are rested and happy and we are making some cool, no-rush pieces of art.
Our Home Week has turned into Art Week and I’m hoping that between our Mod Podge encrusted hands and the drying paint brushes, the girls will have a week to remember. I’m also hoping that even if the house is a little cluttered this week like all of the art classrooms that I’ve ever sat in in my life, it will be for a good cause: fostering a growing need in them to create something.
To make something last.
To point to something and say, That’s what I did.
And that that need will follow them until they are adults.
For me, creating makes me healthier and more balanced. It lets me give OUT what I’ve taken in. And unlike my angst-filled period when I was 28, when I’m healthy and creating the product only gets better and better. I want to teach my girls this.
Do you NEED to make things? Does your heart and attitude affect your product?
Hi Sarah! I have been reading your blog for a while now and I love your honesty and transparency.. In our home we have recently just been on a journey of creating. I am realizing more and more that we are made to create because we were made a Creator. makes sense?? I wrote a blog about it recently about creating a home that nurtures creativity. We especially as women need it xx
thanks! and i agree. it is in our nature to CREATE. what a thoughtful God to give us this ability. i’m thankful for that.
Loved hearing about your Art Week.
You guys (girls) are wonderful and what beautiful heart art you are creating in those girls. It makes me want to make something too!!! I don’t get a chance to make too much (besides beds and dinner. ha!), but when I do it definitely has to come from a good heart attitude. At least for me anyway. 
God bless you always! deb
“heart art” – i love that!!
GORGEOUS…Sarah it is so beautiful!! We have a wall of the girls framed art and the joy and pride of showcasing it brightens every day.
I love creating and when my husband and I were going through the hardest time of our marriage. We created…together. We learned about the art of lament, I heard his, he heard mine. That was a big turning point for us.
This was one of the pieces: http://madabella.typepad.com/blog/2010/07/lament-rain-on-me.html
And truly, this season was when I “heard” my husband for the very first time. Really heard his heart. His deep heart….
melissa, that is so, so beautiful! i only had time to look at the picture but i look forward to reading the story. xo
thanks melissa. and what a beautiful post! thanks for sharing the link. =)
Yes! I always have projects going on around my house.and that is why I started a non profit to create and give back http://www.makeovermemphis.com
I think that art not only expresses so much as individuals it reflects our Gods creative imaginative heart!
By the way Hopes project is super cool!
what a cool think Brooke! i looked at that site…i love the smiling faces of the family. so sweet.
yes, yes and yes.
i have a need to create. my sister says it’s when i’m most at peace, most myself. for me, it’s when i can best worship god – raw, unfiltered, just honest worship- in any capacity, when i’m being creative.
there was a long period of time when my creativity was stifled. i turned to all sorts of wonderful, self-destructive activities and then when i gave all of that up, i wondered if i had ever been creative at all.
i have to consider all the ways i create, for all the times i can’t actually paint or collage, even if it’s as simple as singing new songs to the lord in my car. of late, it’s been blogging.
my wonderful and incredibly talented and creative friend dar pointed out to me years and years ago that even the first line of the bible is, ‘in the beginning, god created…’ (she also prays, like in the parable of the talents, that god would give her all of the talents that are just being sat on. isn’t that such a cool prayer??)
i went to see some friends in nebraska years ago. on one rainy day, i sat down with their three children and we did what you described. at the end of the day, we had an ‘art show’ for their parents. it was so fun. i love the wreckless, wild activity of a three year old with a box of crayons.
xo
that’s beautiful mary. i never thought about that: that God creating is the first act of the bible. very cool.
That is awesome. I usually write when I am upset, but my best writing actually comes when all is right with the world. You gave me a new perspective. Right in front of my eyes and I couldn’t see it!
me too. when all is right with the world… =)
I love her picture. It’s beautiful.
thanks desiree. i think so too. she did that at art camp and i love all the awesome ideas her art teacher had.
Oh yes, I have the deep need to create and it takes different forms depending on where my heart is at… pain is typically a writing period for me; that’s where I’ve been for the last year or so but I tend to keep the writings to myself. When I’m content I create scrapbook pages; this was also my job for a very long time so some of the enjoyment wore off after creating on demand for too long. When I’m really in the zone, knowing who I am and what I’m doing with my life(this is rare), I paint watercolors.
I just finished up a summer law course at school last night so today is my crafty day, I’ll be making cards to sell at a Farmer’s Market next week… they are a great mini-canvas your girls might enjoy making those as well!
thanks, houston. great idea! i do have some card supplies.
My need to make things in response to the lowest point in my life back in 2008 and resounded in me starting up my own non profit. Dandelion Wishes, Inc. And God has opened up his resource room for opportunities are now abounding….all because of Art. ART HEALS!
that’s wonderful lesley!
I need to write. When I’m stressed my husband will ask me if I need to go write in my journal. If I let it go too long I start to feel like I’m gonna explode. It needs to come out of me. Another thing I do is cook. That creativity excites me and I love having people over for new recipes.
yes, writing heals me.
cooking stresses me out. =)
I once had a tremendous creative drought when my boys were very young and I was working full-time. I really had no time to create, so I put everything away and just focused on the daily tasks. After about three months, I’d find myself meandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby or Michael’s, thinking, “I could do that,” or “That looks like fun.” Not because it was the specific thing I wanted to do as much as I was dying for a creative outlet. Sort of like a starving person who would be willing to eat just about anything, even if it wasn’t food they really liked. Ever since then, I’m learning to listen to that inner desire to create. It doesn’t always take the same form, but if I don’t do anything creative, I’m out of sync and life just isn’t okay. I love your art week. What a fun thing to do!!
i know. motherhood has the tendency to suck creativity sometimes. me too.
I feel most at peace when there’s a paint brush in my hand or I’m typing words out on my blog or when I’m redecorating the living room for the third time that month or when I’m mixing up cookie dough in a bowl. I always feel the need to make and create.
i love mixing up cookie dough in a bowl…
Love your art week! Love this post about the need to create. I also feel that need and with young children don’t always get that need filled. I know it’s only a season. What a great thing you are doing sharing that with your kids. You asked, “Does your heart and attitude affect your product?”. Absolutely! At least it does mine. (If you’re interested, you can see some of my work over here: http://www.notforman.blogspot.com. It’s actually not MINE…it’s His.)
what beautiful art! so peaceful and dreamy…
thank you for sharing.
I loved your daughters art…It actually had a certain something.
Can we see a pic. of the art created and hung?
i used to love to create. i painted & sold some pics, took piano & guitar lessons, danced, loved music, & even wanted to learn to sew. i don’t have the desire to do any creating these days. i think that depression, health issues, husband in a cult, etc wears me down that i have no energy. sorry to be a downer here but it is what is. i love your blog and enjoy your life thru your eyes!
wow, babe…you hit GREAT nerve in me…
when i saw Hope’s picture…
read your words…
the first thot that
popped
into my head was…
“and God saw everything He had made
and it was VERY good”
the next thot i had
was from Job’s lament
where God asks (my paraphrase partly)
“Job,
where were you when I made
the cosmos…
and the stars sang
for joy?”
JOY…amazing JOY…GOD-made-JOY!
her face
your heart
together in JOY!
(Jesus’ heart too!)
love you ALL,
dad
Can’t wait to see a photo of the collage.
When I wrote poetry it was always based out of my feelings. If I was sad, grateful, or empty…the words written were the words of my heart.
Love, love, love this! I totally get the need to create. And I have seen it in my girls. The need to build, draw, and create daily. They spend hours doing it. And I love it. This week it’s been Tinkertoys and blocks; creating a “city” in our den. Maybe we will need to get the easels out next week…..
Oh, and that piece by Hope is some kind of awesomeness.
Wow, Hope did an amazing job!
Every once in a while I feel the need to be creative. Esp. when I haven’t done anything artistic in a long while. I love to porcelain paint, scrapbook, doodle and of course, photography!!
I love your daughter’s art piece. So lovely and is just the beginning if she’s anything like my oldest daughter! I do love to “create” whether it’s inspired in music, writing, or food. There is something wonderful about being able to present a project to the world with the knowledge that your heart went into it. We do have a creative God who placed a desire to “create” in us. Such a wonderful gift!