Art in it’s many forms – writing, sculpture, music, dance, painting – tells a story.

As artists, it’s not just any story you are detailing on the blank page or canvas. It’s a story told through your filter. It’s a story that has your unique take on the world. It’s a story that has captivated your own imagination.

As artists, we are creative people who create something from nothing. Whether artists use a pen, pencil, a keyboard, work in oils, pastels or watercolor, they take ordinary materials and transform them into something amazing.

Whatever tools we use, we tell the story about our work and ourselves in a way that engages an audience.

Sometimes it’s a struggle to find the right words, or the right medium to use. Sometimes we would prefer if there was a template to follow, so we could just fill in the blanks with data.

But if we followed a template to tell our story, I believe we would have passionless art. You cannot fill in the blanks with passion.

If you as the artist were to just fill in the blanks, it wouldn’t tell your audience who you were as a person.

My daughter Atlee tells her story with passion as she weaves in the contrast between light and darkness in her drawings and paintings…

Part of the story we share of our work, hints at why we used these materials or technique at this time in our lives.

As artists, it helps to ask questions of ourselves. Why this story? Why do we tell it now? Why did we choose these materials or this technique?

Does the story you share with the world, tell others what drives you, what you yearn for, or why this vision is the one your need to express?

Most of all, sharing our story, unlatches the closet doors and opens them wide, to let people see what’s really in our artist’s heart.

I believe in sharing our passion in all our art, compels people to really connect with our art – and with the artist – on a much deeper level.

As artists, when we share our story, our audience begins to be drawn to us and our art in a new way. They look at it in wonder. They begin to year to own it for themselves. They begin to long for the same emotions they feel when they connect with our art, to be part of their life, everyday.

So keep telling your story… with passion.

How does your art, tell your story? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. We can learn from each other;)