Create

It’s nice to have a friend with whom to create.

 

Heidi the Librarian got me into writing blackout poetry

But I got her into making tin art.

We started by taking classes together at a local art gallery.

After a couple of classes, I purchased my own supplies and begin tin arting at home.

On a particularly difficult Saturday for Heidi, I asked if she wanted to come create. She did.

I don’t remember what she made that day, but I do know that that Saturday changed the course of our lives for the next few years. 

Heidi began coming to the house on many weekends and eventually we established a routine of her daughter coming and all of us getting coffee and food and playing games with my parents.

Unfortunately, life and schedules have kept Heidi and her daughter from coming to create for the past three months.

But over the weekend, they finally returned, and Heidi created her best piece yet.

 

I’ve always said that Heidi and I have different styles.

But our different styles were never more noticeable than on Saturday.

Heidi had a commission for a grizzly bear.

I needed to make some hearts for a door prize for a retreat that I’m helping lead in April.

Heidi spent 5 to 6 hours working on her one piece and she didn’t finish. 

While she was working, I deconstructed several tins, cleaned up a bit, made seven different simple hearts, wrote my blackout poem, and decided to do my own version of a grizzly bear. I then made two quilt hearts out of scrap tin. 

Heidi was working with intricate details and wavy lines. 

I was working with geometric shapes and straight lines. 

Our work is so very different.

 

Yet isn’t that the beauty of art?

Isn’t it the point of creating?

Give two people the exact same materials and they will express what is on their heart or mind in different ways.

The finished products will vary and the results will reflect personality and headspace as much as talent and skill.

And it’s not really a matter of comparison or one being better than the other. 

(Although I admit that I oftentimes think my work amateur compared to Heidi’s). 

It’s a matter of creation. 

Of expression. 

Of connection. 

Creating is a matter of catharsis. 

 

Tin art may not be your thing. 

Or blackout poetry.

And that’s OK.

Because there are so many different ways to create.

Painting, drawing, sculpting, dancing, making music, acting, landscaping, architecturing, woodworking, scrapbooking, model making, stain glass window making, puzzling, sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting, retreat planning, sermonizing, writing. 

Whatever your way, 

Whatever your interests,

Get out there and use your hands and create.

Creating is an act of resistance. 

And it is so much fun with a friend!