**I know that this is not a unique take, but I want to share my own experience.**
Give yourself permission to make bad art. Weird art. Silly art. Art that only you love because you loved creating it.
Lately, I’ve been getting back into painting. The process of art making has been very healing for me. I am not a great artist. I will never be a great artist. My art will never hang in museums. I had to let go of the desire to make something good, or something that other people would like, or praise. Once I stopped focusing on the end product, I felt free and unblocked.
I started asking friends and family about symbols, or animals, or anything really that they felt a strong connection to the way that I feel connected to butterflies. I started by asking my siblings. Each of my sisters chose flowers, one chose sunflowers and the other pink roses. My brother chose a mountain range. The paintings aren’t great paintings. But my siblings loved them because I took the time to ask them what was important to them.
I kept asking others in my circle, and so far I painted my friend’s three cats on a bookshelf with her favorite flower, and another friend an elephant with a sunset in the background. I painted a snake for a little girl who loves snakes, and I painted a fairy for a woman who loves faeries.
Finding out what means something to someone else, what they connect with, has helped me feel connected to the people I love.
My work is not gallery worthy and it never will be. It might not even be living room or office wall worthy, but I know it has made every person I’ve given paintings to smile. That’s the best part.
So, make art that makes you smile, that makes others feel seen. Do it because you can and no one else can do it just like you.