Does your family hate your art?

It’s not impossible to live the artist’s life without the recognition of your loved ones, but it can be exhausting.

Don’t forget that people have their own reasons for their feelings. Everyone is telling themselves their own story. 

Even their story about you.

I remember one family member speaking about my choice to be an artist, which she saw as irresponsible.

She said …“People like you,” 

– And just a quick note, every time you hear someone begin a sentence with those three words, people like you, arm yourself for whatever follows –

She said, “People like you pretend that the world is a big beautiful rainbow of colors. You live in a fantasy. The real world is black and it’s white. Your refusal to acknowledge that is a sign of immaturity. Artists are immature.”

Damning words.

But they didn’t hurt because they damned her, not me. 

Okay, it was about me and about you too, but hell, she’s right!

Artists do see the world in color. And maybe we’re wrong, maybe the world is black and white? Maybe we are immature not to recognize that?

But so what?

Maturity, I’ve grown to learn, is highly over-rated.

For all of her concern for me, which was truly genuine, she could not save me from who I am and the choices I make. 

And to be honest, I’m not interested in growing up if it means following rules that I haven’t agreed upon.

I mean, I guess I could try? But you know as well as I do that trick never works.

I could throw myself into a ‘real job,’ instead of chasing my dreams. I could make my choices with cautious prudence, instead of wild abandon. I could ignore the itching in my fingers to make and stop my eyes from resting on beauty.

But could I ever see the world in blacks and whites? 

Don’t think so.

Not because of immaturity, but because it’s LIFE who reveals itself to artists in vivid Technicolor. 

And there’s no way for us to stop LIFE.

It’s your LIFE, not your family’s life. If they can’t see the world in the same colors you do, that’s okay. Let them paint with blacks and whites.

But never close your eyes to your own truth.