I Swallow Life

I want to devour life whole - to feel it's sticky sweetness break open on my tongue, and the bitterness after it's gone. I want to taste it. Really taste it. But it's not enough to taste life. The joy of experience is in the sharing it. I want to share with you the abstractions of these rich and pungent moments, in words and images, with my mouth and eyes and my own two hands.

I have always struggled with the word, " artist." What is it? What does it mean? Am I an artist if I'm not creating anything right now? Am I an artist if I've never studied art history? Am I an artist if I don't know how to draw or paint or sculpt? Am I an artist if I can't stomach selling my work? Am I an artist? I don't know. Are you?

I know I'm a girl who can't sit still. I'm a girl who feels deeply. I'm a girl who notices details. I'm a girl who internalizes the moods of others, the environment around me. I'm a girl with big ideas. I'm a girl who makes things. I'm a girl who gravitates toward color and texture and light and shadows. I'm a girl who appreciates the juxtaposition of the ugly in a beautiful world, and the beauty in a ugly world. I'm a girl who needs to know, needs to see, needs to accept, needs to relate, needs to connect.

I'm a girl.
I swallow life.

Live Love.

I don't want to live - I want to love first, And live incidentally.

                                                 - Zelda Fitzgerald, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1919