𝐒𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐁𝐞 𝐀𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 ...

Sure, you’re creative. 

You wanna be an artist.

Answer me this?

 

How much of an artist you gonna be. 

Pretty pictures? 

Nice arrangements?

 Le mot juste? 

Innovative images and shapes? 

That kind of artist?

That's nice, but it's just "artistic".

Why settle. 

Go all the way!

Be a real artist! 

Be creative enough to love with all your heart. 

Even if it's been broken.

[Who's hasn't been ... join the club.]

After all, isn't it true you only give to yourself? 

So, why be less that you are. 

Stop looking at all those paint-by-numbers masterpieces you put together as a kid.

Stop decorating a prison cell of your own delusions. 

Start your day with a fresh canvas. 

In fact, start the next moment that way.

How?

There's a wellspring of creativity within you. 

Simply go there and draw from it. 

But, you won't get any water from a well unless you drop a bucket into it. 

Bucket? Drop?

Drop down within yourself. 

At first there might be some cobwebs and stuff.

Even broken bits.*

Keep going. Keep going.

You'll see ...

*[There's a simple fix for those.] 

But, please ...

Don't wait until the house is on fire to dig a well.

Be courageous!

****

Another clear-eyed perspective of great authority ...

"Our mind can be compared to a hand temporarily tied as much to the conceptual representation of an ego —  ego or self — as to the concepts and fixations derived from this idea. Little by little, with practice, egoistic fixations and concepts are eliminated, and just as a hand when it is untied can finally open, the mind opens, acquiring all kinds of operational possibilities. She then discovers that she has numerous qualities and skills, just as happens to the hand once she is freed from what binded her."

H.E. the Very Venerable Kalu Kyabje Rinpoche