Write and Art On, My Crazy Friends

Do your writing, do your art, and be a creative force in a mad mad mad world.

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Whether you’re a professional or a hobbyist, the best thing that you can do for yourself, and for the world, is your art.

Artistic expression is a powerful tool that can inspire and empower like nothing else in the world. Creativity expresses itself in art.

Spend any amount of time watching the news or perusing social media, and you will probably start to wonder about the state of the world. Why are those guys bombing those other guys? What happened to intellectual discourse? How can so many people be so gullible? It’s all too easy to see this world as going mad.

What can anyone do in the face of this insanity to change it? When all is said and done, very little. However, one of the best things that we can do is create. Write your stories, write your truth, and make your art whether it’s in fiber, wood, paint, clay, glass, metal, or whatever other medium you work in.

In other words, write and art on, my crazy friends.

Make good choices

More than a decade ago, I stopped watching the news. I also stopped reading news websites, newspapers, and all other forms of media.

Before you wonder if I choose blissful ignorance, I don’t. I still browse through the headlines and am very picky and choosy about what I will investigate. That’s the key to it – I pick and choose.

Watching the news, whether from good sources or bad sources, invites inundation. They are focused on drawing you in, keeping your attention, and getting you angry. Keep watching to find out just how outraged you should be! This got even worse when cable news brought forth the 24-hour news cycle and the internet shared instant information from everywhere.

Clickbait is how internet info sources draw you in. Bold, often misleading headlines draw readers. It takes very little to find yourself going down this or that rabbit hole.

However, you can choose what to read and watch. That’s why I stopped immersing myself in the news on TV, and carefully decide when to read more than just the headline. That way, I stay informed without being overwhelmed.

Nobody needs to spend their day in front of a TV or screen watching CNN, BBC World News, Fox News, or any other programming like them. While it’s important to be aware of the world around us, it’s not necessary that we become subject matter experts. Especially when most of what you see in the news is far, far outside of your control.

Think about it before you dive into that story or watch that report. Will what you learn here ultimately help or harm you?

Being creative – write and art on

It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional or a hobbyist. Creating art in any form is not merely escapism. It’s a mind-opener.

Like a can opener for your brain, creating art in every form opens your mind. This is one of the best ways to become more empowered. Being more empowered translates to being more powerful overall.

We are all incredibly powerful beings. All of us are creators in one form or another. Some of us get in touch with our artistic side to do our creative work.

I write. That takes a lot of different forms. Here, with articles and essays such as this. Novels of sci-fi and fantasy I put out into the world. I also journal daily to infodump and find clarity.

The arts take numerous forms. Music, sculpture, painting, crochet, cooking, woodworking, pottery, and glass bead making are just a few examples that people I know are into. Each of these people are creative forces, and creative forces in a mad, mad, mad world open more minds and expand overall empowerment.

Too many of our so-called “leaders” prefer us under their thumbs or boots. Somehow, they got it in their heads that disempowering others is how they keep their own power. This is why we live in a fear-based society hyperfocused on lack, scarcity, and insufficiency.

Creatives reveal that this is a lie. How? By being empowered and bringing new works of art into the world. Because many artists are seen as bucking the status quo, it takes a little madness to put your art into the world.

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We’re all a little mad here

In college, my freshman year, one afternoon I got this crazy notion that my sanity, somehow lost, might come if I called for it. As I opened the mailbox in the lobby of my dorm I called out, “Sanity? Are you in there?” I randomly asked a person or two if they saw it. A friend took pity on me and told me she was pretty sure my sanity and hers had run off together to the southwest on a crazy adventure.

Before you question this episode, yes, I was fully cognizant of being that goofball calling out to my sanity. I know now that as part of my identity as a storyteller, this was me creating a unique – albeit wacky – story.

Sanity and normalcy are constructs that are utterly subjective. Just like beauty and perfection, they’re in the eye of the beholder. When you write and art on, you’re accepting that you might be ever-so-slightly crazy and seen that way by friends, family, and sometimes random strangers.

Write and art on, my crazy friends. Your creative impulse to make something, whatever your art is, empowers you. Since you are the only one who can empower you – it always comes from within rather than from without – do your thing. Even if it sometimes lacks normalcy and sanity.

Write that poem. Start that novel. Draw that image in your head. Paint the canvas. Form the clay. Fire that glass and make some beads. Crochet that yarn into a blanket. Turn the wood into a shelf. Create.

Write and art on, my crazy friends

Have you ever noticed how “normal” people get mired in minutia? They’re always chasing their tails, trying to understand things in the world around them, but seem completely disconnected from their inner selves?

Artists don’t create from outside sources, but from inside sources. You draw out and share with the world an inner vision. Then, by sharing it with the world – whether as a pro or a hobbyist – you show how you are empowered and are a creator.

It might not seem all that important, but in truth, it is. In a fear-based society overwhelmed with themes of lack, scarcity, and insufficiency, and disempowering notions at every turn, we need all the empowered, colorful, crazy, artists we can get. Why? Because that’s how we help others become empowered and change that negative narrative.

That’s crazy, you might think. Is it? Have you ever seen a movie, read a book, looked at a painting, or some other form of art and been moved? Has it made you feel like something in you awakened? Did you find yourself newly inspired? I have. That sparks my desire to do my art and share it to inspire and empower others in the same way.

The world needs all the inspiration, encouragement, and examples of empowered people it can get. That’s how we can change the narrative and the collective consciousness for the better. In that way, we can shift the fear-based narrative to a reason-based one. The madness of the creatives is an elixir for all.

So please, be your creative self. Write and art on, my crazy friends.

Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you, I conclude with this: How are you inspired to be your own creator – whatever form that takes?

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