Thursday Thoughts...

“Art is giving yourself permission to translate life. Exactly the way you feel. See. And hear it. Be the artist you are. Give yourself permission to speak your own language.”  

Nayyirah Waheed

I am pretty sure that most artists would agree with these sentiments. That urge to translate what you see, read, hear or feel into something. That need to create something in response to beauty, to horror, to politics, to love...

And in doing so, translating it into your own unique language - expressing it in a way others don't, and sometimes in the only way you can.

Perhaps writers feel the same way; when they write they are translating life as well.

That may set us apart from those who absorb and reflect but aren't urged to respond in some way? Activists would say they respond I am sure so I guess it is tricky to try and imagine how it is for others.

All I really know is that I think making and creating is about translating life, and speaking in your own language. Permission granted.

A wee wintery embossing of mine...