Last night I had the pleasure of listening to Wendy Mendenhall speak. She is putting together an amazing institution called Tao Metaversity. You will be hearing a lot more about it over the coming months – trust me on that! You can read all about it at http://taometaversity.wordpress.com During her talk, Wendy told an amazing story. She was asked to go to a school and address classes of three different grades: second, third and sixth grades, to be specific. Wendy enthusiastically asked the second graders, “Who here is an artist?”. EVERY hand went up! She went around the room asking what art they specialized in. One boy said, “I dressed myself!” Another girl said she decorated her room. Each student excitedly shared how they, in their own way, expressed themselves as an artist. When Wendy went to the third graders and asked “Who here is an artist?” – HALF the hands went up. Wendy asked herself “What happened to the other half of the artists?” When she went to the sixth graders and asked the same question, only one hand went up. That one student’s hand was literally being yanked down by the student next to him, telling him “You’re not an artist. Put your hand down. You’re embarassing yourself.” The other student struggled to keep his hand up, insisting “I am too an artist!” What happened? Their definition of an artist got smaller and smaller until it was confined and narrow.
Wendy pointed out that everything in the room was created by an artist. An architect designed the room itself. Someone with super creativity designed those chairs – they were unique in design and comfortable. The clothes we were wearing, the jewelry that adorned us, etc. etc.
It made me think “How am I an artist?” How are YOU an artist?