Who's an artist?

Hey all. Welcome to my blog! For those who know me, I'm excited you decided to check it out. For those who don't know me, I'm Stacey. Owner of a traveling paint studio in Southeast Wisconsin, named Stickman Painting Studio. My team and I get to travel to various locations throughout the area and teach people how to paint, all while sipping on some liquid courage.

Yes. We are the lucky ones. We're doing something that we love. Plus we get to paint too! Just kidding. We do love teaching and painting (or at least my team tells me they do).

In the almost six years I've been in the paint and sip industry, one thing that never changes is people. There's at least one person at every event that says, I can't draw a stick man to save my life. Hence the studio name! But in all seriousness. Why is this? So many students come in, scared out of their wits, afraid they're going to do a bad job. Afraid they are going to be judged.

Remember when we were kids, when we had no fear to just create and draw and doodle (even if it was on our parents living room wall). We were excited to paint. To create mud sculptures in the backyard. And we couldn't wait to show our creations to our family and friends. We were proud of our work. But then, as we got older, something changed. In school, if we weren't "good enough," we stopped creating. We pushed that desire under the rug and moved on with our lives. Maybe some of us had and still have a hidden desire to want to create art again. Maybe some of us do create secretly.

In the industry I'm in, about 90% of my students say they haven't painted or created since grade or middle school, with a small percentage saying they have never created in their life (which I don't think I believe, sidewalk chalk art still counts!)

But why does this have to happen? A majority of the people I paint with state how much fun it was and how relaxing and therapeutic the class was when it was over. Not everyone in the world is going to be a van Gogh or a da Vinci. But why can't we all just create to create?

If you stopped making art at one point. How old were you? If you remember, why did you stop?