The Late Blooming Artist

These words written below came to me as I was trying to draw this pink suitcase at the left. Most of the stuff I've created so far has been done using simple vector shapes combined together with only a little bit of what I have called "actual drawing." But I am trying more often to do more drawing from scratch, if only for practice. As you can tell, this drawing is kinda sloppy, I'm sure the perspective is off (I also rarely try to draw perspective), etc. So as I struggled with it I paused to write my thoughts down.

You go your whole life telling yourself that you can't draw. Then one day you decide that you can actually draw. You may not be perfect. The lines you put down on the paper aren't quite right. Things look a little odd. But the lines on the piece of paper are proof that you can draw.

It feels foreign at first. You get frustrated sometimes (okay, a lot). At moments it is like speaking a different language that you know only poorly. What goes where? Does this line go here (does the verb go before or after the noun)? Why does it look/sound so funny? But you persevere and do it again and again (or throw it down and decide ... momentarily ... that you're forever done with this hard, difficult foreign art language). Something reminds you that you Can draw. Deep down you want to try again because you know that creativity is a part of you. It is not about being the best artist. It is that you are, within yourself, art. And that imperfection is part of the beauty of it. It is about your joy, not your perfection. Like the mud pies you may have made as a child. Anyway ... this is somewhat like my journey has been for me as a "late bloomer" to creating "art."