Who Are You Inspiring?

A couple teenage kids just visited here with their family; they spent the night, {{worked creative magic}}, and left us happier and invigorated.

Teenagers did this?…Really?

Yup.  Theirs was the sort of creative magic I think we all hope to spread in the world.

So what was it these girls did?  Something both simple yet difficult to allow yourself: they were themselves and they shared their creative gifts. Both girls are prolific artists, drawing nearly constantly either on paper or digital tablets (I am intrigued- have never tried this…)  They are 14 and 15, living in a world that often dismisses art as a quaint hobby and adolescence as an affliction.  They are on vacation and they are in a (near) strangers home, yet their artwork continues.

It was so much fun to talk about drawing with them!  I showed them some of my sketches and talked about what I’ve been learning; in turn they told me more about digital drawing, showed me some of their work and we talked how it feels to switch between paper and digital (“Basically it’s the same, it’s just drawing and I just do it,” ha, of course.)

Just talking about my work with them and seeing what sparked their interest got my mind bubbling again.  I did three rough sketches of an idea that is floating around in my mind.  After a lovely creative month in May I had stalled out this month (hence my post about creative darkness)  I am so grateful for inspiration again!  I’m not the only one they inspired:

Moments after they left my 6 year old said, “Can I draw in your sketchbook?”

“Yes”

“I need some crayons…no! I need colored pencils.”

He sat and drew intently for half an hour working on a chicken drawing and then relaxing into simply experimenting with the pencils happily.

By just being yourself, who are you inspiring?  Will you ever really know how far you reach?