Greetings, lovely human.

I was going to send a whole lot of separate emails per marketing best practice. Then I didn't. Why? Because it is a whole lot of ridiculous when you're just an artist with a bunch of people in her network.

Therefore, if you haven't heard from me in a while, that is because you're a client who has been brought over from a previous system. Please hit unsubscribe at the bottom if you don't want to be on my lists any more. Freedom from email can be a beautiful thing.

I want to talk to you today about art. Because I'm an artist. 

Artists are not valued in our society. Artists are idolised. Almost every celebrity you can name is an artist. He or she is a singer, an actor, a director, a writer, a dancer. 

We see these people and we put them up on shiny pedestals, surrounded by glittering jewels. We ummm and we ahhhh and we think oh wouldn't it be nice if I could do something even close to what that person does.

And then most people go back to their lives. They live inside a narrative that says:

There's no money in art.

It says:

Being an artist doesn't pay.

It says:

Artists are crazy/supported/come from wealthy families/have more time than me/[insert other thing here].

It rarely says:

Artists listen to God/Source/Universe and work flat-out on their art because that's what they're here to do.

In working through what is truly a recovery program for artists who have been drowned by such thinking, I've identified a remarkable pattern.

That pattern is:

An artist is not 'an author', 'a dancer', 'a painter'. An artist is not 'an actor'. An artist is an artist, and they most often work across several artforms simultaneously. They may become famous for one dimension. But they are artists across many.

Take Anthony Hopkins. He is a composer, a visual artist, and the actor that you know and perhaps love.

The same is true (in different forms) for David Bowie. Joni Mitchell. Madonna. Neal Peart. Leo Tolstoy. 

It makes sense because if you're an artist in one area, you can only draw on the well for so long before it's empty. You have to nourish your inner artist, and that nourishment comes from other creative activity. Other art forms. Baking. Gazing at the sky. Gaining space so that your dominant art can be refuelled.

What I'm discovering for myself is that my left hand loves to draw, but hates pencils because they're too restrictive. She loves crayons and paints because they're expansive and free. I got this idea from an illustrator friend who is working through the program with me, whose left hand 'talks' to his right hand!

Famous artists make art just to make art. The art is the value. The art is the reason. The exploration is enough. You don't have to flog yourself to death to sell it, to become 'commercial', to bury yourself in business. Art is enough.

And so as we come to the summer solstice and the close of the Gregorian calendar for another year, I'd love for you to ponder something.

That something is: How are you honouring what truly drives you? Are you willing to go all-in on your art (whatever is your art)? How might that change your life?

Powerful questions, aren't they. They're powerful because they ask us to dig out the taproots of others' believes that have been passed down through generations of attitudes and beliefs.

When you realise that you're living a life built inside the scaffolding of those other people's lives, everything becomes possible.

You'll hear from me again in the new year.

xx Leticia

PS. If you're in the hills on 11 December, come to the Gumeracha Fifth Sunday Market. I'm reading tarot in the foyer. :)