I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has told me, “I’m just not creative.” (I used to charge only a nickel, but with inflation…)

Having new and creative ideas excites me! Are all my ideas genius ones? Of course not. Have I followed up on every single one? Nope. Did some of them not work exactly as I had envisioned? I wish I had better news.

But many of my ideas have been helpful to not only myself but to others as well.

I’ve mentioned before that I find reading outside my typical areas of interest to be invigorating and stimulating to my creative process. Case in point, an article in the recent regional magazine The Piedmont Virginian caught my eye.

It was a book excerpt from “A Painter’s Musings” by Ruthie Windsor-Mann. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am not an artist. I detested art class in high school and postponed sketching the mandatory ten objects a week until the last possible moment. I do believe my collection of “boxes from different angles” pushed the art teacher over the edge.

The book excerpt prompted me to add the book to my Christmas list. It’s fascinating to hear how Ms. Windsor-Mann combined her own reflections on art and how her process can relate to life in general. Oh, and some of her lovely art is interspersed with her words.

To give you just a taste, here’s part of her view on mistakes: “This isn’t brain surgery. It’s a piece of paper.” And in considering how we humans tend to focus on mistakes, bad decisions, and criticism instead of the positives in our lives, she said, “Negatives seem to be filled with emotional permanent glue.”

I’ve included a link to the magazine below. The article begins on page 38 on the online version.

I feel as though she and I are kindred spirits of a sort—having an idea for a book for many years but letting it sit inside our heads until now, choosing not to shop around for a publisher, AND not dropping it for sale on Amazon! Her book is available from a limited number of sources which are outlined in her blog post linked at the end.

Hmm…I wonder if the artist has ever said, “I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has told me, I’m not very artistic.”

PS – Ever since last year when I was blessed with a wonderfully talented artist to illustrate my book, I have a new and deep appreciation for an artist’s life. You can read about Loralyn Noragong on the bottom half of my book’s page.

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The Piedmont Virginian Autumn 2021 issue

Ruthie Windsor-Mann’s blog post about her book