I am not meant for art....

I can't even draw a line...

Drawing and Painting are born talents....

Familiar words? Or at least, have you heard these words from others? Now, what if I say that everyone is born with it? You may counter-argue, "Oh! Well... Mridula, you've got so many artists in your family, it's ought to be in your blood!" Let me tell you that I had not explored art until I was 32, and I'm a self-taught artist. YouTube was my guru.

Now, let me bust some of the myths that are commonly held on to by adults. I mention adults because seldom do kids nurture such limiting beliefs in themselves. Since the Stone Age, humans have taken to drawings. It's from drawings that letters emerged. Every letter is a drawing, but we never hear anyone say, "I can't write," unless they are illiterate. 

If you dig deeper into the concept of illiteracy, you will know that not being able to write also entails not being able to recognize the sounds, not being able to put together the letters to form words, sentences, and make some meaning out of them. Hence the first task for the educators is to teach the illiterate adult students to "draw" the letters and then associate the shapes with a sound.

So, before you claim that you can't draw, think if you can write. If you can write, then yes, you can draw. Adding colors to your drawings is a skill that can be learned. Not everyone can be creative, but everyone can be skilled. Skills can be trained and skills can be learned.

Keep learning, keep exploring, keep discovering...

__ Mridula.

5 May, 2023.