Let! Yourself! Be! Bad! At! Stuff!

(I posted this for my friends on my personal facebook, but I decided I wanted to share it here as well)
     I tried really hard to convince someone who stopped by my booth at market yesterday that drawing is ABSOLUTELY a skill that can be learned and improved upon, and they refused to believe me. But - let me tell you something. I mostly create drawings to eventually use them to create printing blocks, but 30 years ago? 20 years ago? Even 10 years ago I might have told you I was actually terrible at drawing. I didn't have nearly the skill level I have now (and I'm still learning!) - but somewhere along the way I gave myself permission to just draw and do it badly, and then with practice I got a lot better! (I'm sure there are people I went to high school with who are like 'Wait, Julie makes visual art? Wasn't she like...a band geek and dance and theatre nerd though?" Yes I was, and yes I still am ;))

​     So just - if you want to learn how to do something, ANYTHING art related (and of course I include the performing arts in this!), please please PLEASE don't give up before you even start! You might (and probably will be) kind of terrible at it at first. AND THAT'S OKAY!!! I know, I know, some of us hate hate HATE being bad at something (especially if somewhere along the way we got saddled with those "good student!" sort of labels) but I promise you, life's much more fun if you just...LET YOURSELF BE BAD AT STUFF!!!

*looks around...oh, uh...where did this soapbox come from and why am I standing on it all of the sudden? ;))