A Year of Voice

Every December, I typically do a mental rundown of my year: What did I learn? How did I grow? What have I accomplished? and so on. Yesterday I noticed an application on Facebook where you could design a page called “A Year in Status”. If you are familiar with Facebook you will understand what “Status” means, however, for all my readers who don’t have a Facebook page, I will explain. At the top of your profile page there is a box that says “Status” which is where you can write anything that is on your mind for the day. Share a thought or a quote or simply say, “I am making Christmas cookies with my kids today.” Your friends on Facebook will see this and they can click that they “like” what you said or make a comment on it. So, “A Year in Status” takes all the status comments you wrote through the year and puts them all together on a nicely designed page to share, for all to see. It was kind of cool seeing a whole year of my own comments on one page and it got me thinking about all the “Voice of the Artist” columns I wrote this year. I would like to take this last column of the year and call it “A Year of Voice”.

Create Love * Homeschooling Art-portunity * Inspire Forward * Art Windows of Healing * Love the One Your With * Life a Creative Adventure * Raising Artists * Creatively Green * Bragging Rights * Creative Communication * Found: Inspiration * Art That Brings Hope * Abundance Thinking * What is your sign? * Focus on Provincetown * Kennedy School Sets Young Artists Free * Summer Art * What Colors are Your Dreams? * Committed to Creativity * Life is Good * Fall Art * Beauty from Within * Art Rocks * Are We All Artists? * Thinking Makes it So * Creative Acts of Kindness * Just Say Thanks * The Gift of Art * You are the Boss of your Own Painting

After reading all the titles of my columns I immediately noticed that I started out the year with “Create Love”. As I think of who I am and the basic foundation of my thinking, Create Love is the perfect title to state what I want to come through in every column I write. I truly believe that love is all there is and the rest is an illusion. It is not so much what I say, but it is how I make you feel that will be remembered.

I crafted a prayer for you out of all my columns and have creatively summed up the year using their titles:

I pray that this year, of this artist, giving voice to create love has opened your awareness to inspire forward to bring the healing light of love to the ones you are with. Life is a creative adventure, whether we are raising artistic children or being creatively green, it is good to remember we are allowed bragging rights in the name of love. Creative communication is found inspiration and is an art that brings hope. Abundance Thinking is a sign of creative freedom that brings color to your dreams and the dreams of others. When we are committed to creativity, life is good and we bring out the beauty from within. It is then that we realize, that art rocks and that we are all artists because thinking makes it so. The bottom line is that creative acts of kindness, along with just saying thanks with a heart of gratitude, is a gift of art unto itself. Finally, I would like to say; this life you live, is a work of art and remember, “You are the boss of your own painting.”