What Art Means To Me

Saturday 5/2/09 time 1:54 PM - Juli Ryan

     The Essex Open House was really amazing!  There were so many different kinds of art there:  sculpture, paintings, photos, dolls, jewelry and more!  Even actors and musicians.  It made me start to think about what art means to me and I will assume, other artists.

      Stereo-types for artists are out--I saw artists from every walk of life!  And they all had their unique qualities.  They all had their own special stories to tell, and that is why art is so sacred. 

      My art feels like it's my child.  When I sell a piece, I wish it well and hope it finds a happy home!  But in truth, it is not my child, but a piece of the story from my life.  And that's hard to give away!

      My paintings are almost always happy and uplifting.  The colors are bright, the message is to encourage, to dream...  You would assume that I am a pretty happy person, and for the most part, that is true.  But I wasn't always that way.  I had  rough childhood and was actually a very meloncholy teenager.   My mother has bipolar, so from an early age I felt I had to be a grown-up.  I was very serious.   My childhood was very short.  So my paintings are a way of showing the world I didn't get a chance to live in....the one of childhood dreams and carefree magic!  So the world I create is the one I wish for, not the one I knew.

      I think most of us feel that way.  So nothing gives me as much pleasure as hearing the people who came to the open house last night exclaim at how happy my paintings made them feel.  That is all any artist could ask for!