Stop trying to impress them.

Good.
Now you can make your art.
Begin here.
In boldness.
In truth.
In doing it for your luscious damn self.
Do it for freedom
For the passion inside that just won’t quit.
Now it is art.
For it contains the unhinged energy of your soul.
The breath-like essence of who you are.
And it will speak to the world.
Because it’s dripping with
Real.

So screw all the rules.
Set aside that laundry list of shoulds.
Barrel past the incredible fear of sounding stupid.
Tell self-doubt to take a hike forever
And stop looking at what everyone else is doing.

Get so quiet
So your soul can get loud.
So it can roar to you.
Hear only that precious howling for days and days and days…

Dive all the way in.
Not just a toe.
Whole body, whole being, everything
Into the frothy sea of soul…
And risk it all.

It’s what your spirit craves, isn’t it?
That tremble of messy beauty
The enchanting nakedness
When you know you put it all out there
Your entire heart contained in a poem, a painting.
Your essence imprinted in a dance,
Your pain woven into a thick book.
That’s fantastic.
Sublime.
Do only that.

Go all in.
It’s beautiful.

Don’t care so much what they think
Because when you care like that
You think too much
You doubt
And doubt creeps in to make sh*tty art
That doesn’t capture what you need it to.
Care only about it feeling true to you.
Care about it setting you free.
Then it will matter.
Then it will be pure.

Muddy not your work with people pleasing.
Keep it raw.
Hot and roaring
With the wildness of your soul.

So do it.

Begin in the raw fires of truth.
Begin where it hurts, rip off the band-aid and let it bleed.
Begin by talking about the sh*t that no one wants to talk about.
Begin by facing the sh*t you think you can’t face.
Begin by loving what you think you can’t love.
Begin by softening everything.

Always always always—
Begin where your heart tells you to.

So do it.

Make fireworks by being who you are.
Set the sky aflame with the hot chaos
Throttling inside you like a rocket, begging to taste light and sun and fresh air.
Release it all.
Be that bold.
Infuse your entire essence into every word
Every line
Every movement
Every color
Every brushstroke.
Yes.

Don’t hold back at all.
Holding back is not your art.
Aliveness is.
Expression is.
Expansion is.
And tasting all the writhing beauty of the universe is what awaits you.

Crash open the floodgates.
Be that bold.
Be yourself.
Go all in.
Make art like this—
Make art that feeds every crevice of your soul.
Make art that could save hearts that are on the brink of withering into hopelessness, like your own, at times.
Make art that swells and soars and pulses with life.
Make art that is like nectar to the thirst you thought you couldn’t quench.
Make art that resurrects pain, only to heal it with fresh tears and daffodils.
Make art that quivers raw in your mouth.
Make art like this—
Sweaty, tender, and courageous.
Make art that is dangerous to complacency.
Make art that is forged through tears.
Make art that howls with the pain of a million broken hearts.
Make art that sings with blazing joy.
Make art that cracks wide open the mystery.
Make art that crushes every obstacle there ever was.
Make art that obliterates bullish*t, especially your own.
Make art that is imperfect and unfinished.
Make art that is sealed with the sweetness of hope.
Make art that tastes like falling in love.
Make art that speaks to you.
There is no other way.

~

Author: Sarah Harvey
Image: Zoe/Flickr
Editor: Lieselle Davidson