You gotta admit, having the audacity to get this far while being YOURSELF no matter what’s goin’ on, is something goll-damned amazing, because the YOU that you are is already pretty frickin’ FANTASTIC. Artistically speaking, so what if sometimes your vision is a bit weird and others don’t understand it…you just go right on and dare to keep doing YOU, ’cause, as they say, everybody else is taken.
Still confused about what you’re doing here? Read this…
Your turn to DRAW!
- During your creative time today, make enough room to experiment with whatever and everything that makes you feel like your YOU’est YOU. What you’re doing may not make SENSE to somebody else and that’s okay; you don’t ever have to prove anything to anybody. Right now, be more interested in trying things, leaving yourself open to happy chance and discovery of possibilities, with the aim to building confidence in your intuition. We might be talking unconventional materials or methods, piling on all the colours, adding feathers and sequins on a watercolour sketch, whatever! There is no wrong answer here! Does it feel like YOU? Then it’s always alright! (Turner prize-winning British-born and Trinidad-based artist Chris Ofili is a good example of what I mean).
Chris Ofili, ‘Blossom’, 1997, mixed media. Ofili’s paintings often include more than paint: glitter, scraps of magazines, and even elephant dung. - Make some bold choices in your style today and if you’re not up to something dramatically different, at the very least, use some fashion accessories as an extension of YOU! One of these pins would be great but five is fabulous!
Just a few from my brooch collection. Why not? Many is more, I always say! - Take a chance, go on, submit your creative efforts to an open call. The worst that can happen is they say no, and even so, you still win because you had the guts to face that rejection with gusto.
- Try a self-portrait. Better yet, be brave and deliberately focus on and magnify a salient feature, especially the one that you have in the past felt least confident about! I can promise you, look at yourself and carefully notice that charming gap in your teeth, your wonderfully sculpted nose, or your cute pokey ears and you will feel very (positively) different about it after 20 minutes of lovingly creative attention. I have never liked how I look wearing glasses, so here is a collections of selfies of me…wearing glasses and smiling about it!
Maybe this Ransom Note gives you a different idea? Let me know!
SHARE the LOVE
You’ve come this far, now why not
<<<<< click to share your creativityĀ – @beware.of.artists
Not only does your creativity need YOU, but here’s a surprise, the world needs your creativity, too! By sharing your response to a Ransom Note, we are building a community who will enjoy, be inspired by, and learn from each other. Who knows, maybe some of us will “find our tribe” or even make the world that tiny bit more pleasant to be in than it was 15 minutes ago!
Other artists who DARE TO BE fab-YOU-lous
- Alison Lapper MBE is a British activist, author, speaker and Mouth and Foot Painting Artist born with no arms and shortened legs, who also modelled at 7 months pregnant for Marc Quinn’s 4th Plinth Project, a portrait that was remade and featured in theĀ London 2012 Paralympics Opening CeremonyĀ
- Fashion and style icon BIlly Porter (who wore a black tuxedo gown on the red carpet for the 2019 Oscars) later in the year “out-Gaga’ed Lady Gaga at the 2019 Met Gala” bedecked like an Egyptian winged god(dess) in gold, and to hell with anybody who says a man can’t wear a dress.
- And let’s not forget those artists who are unreservedly, unashamedly nothing other than their fab-U-lous selves: Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, BeyoncĆ©, RuPaul, and the godmother of them all, Madonna.Ā The lesson here is not the pointy bra or the sequins, but take inspiration from these generous people who share NOTHING OTHER THAN their fabulous selves with the world.
Lady Gaga hat-hair in Las Vegas, 2010. Image courtesy vstyleblog.com
Katy Perry, 2017 VMA awards. Image courtesy http://www.rouge18.com
RuPaul from Drag Race Season 10 (2018). Image courtesy RuPaul.com
Madonna in Jean-Paul Gautier ‘cone bra’ on tour in 1990. Image courtesy ew.com
What other artists or techniques can you think of? Let me know!
Beware of Artists 
Wonderful š