Art and Legacy- what we share with others

I have been thinking about legacy lately and what we leave to our children or the people in our lives. We create legacy on a daily basis. In fact our life is our legacy. Art can be a way we can share a piece of who we are and what is important to us.  It holds an energy or charge to it that when gifted to another encompasses the love or thought that we have for someone else.  When we introduce someone to the arts it is like gifting them with the potential for their creativity to grow and thrive. I cannot think of a greater gift.

When I think of who supported my artistic path I think of my grandmother, an artist in her own right even though she probably wouldn’t  have considered herself one. She was a piano teacher who taught the neighborhood children and later in life she dabbled in oil painting. It was not the art she created that made her an artist but the beauty she found in the world and grace that she bestowed on to others.

To teach is to show, a showing is a revelation of more than we see with our eyes. It is what lies just beneath the surface. Art can do this and so can a mentor. The way we speak to someone, the glance of encouragement, or just a simple complement.  Can be all that someone needs to be comfortable in expressing oneself. Expressing oneself in the arts can be where our true nature shines.

So, tonight when my daughter asked me to hold her hand as she fell asleep I thought of my role now as her guide. To share with her the beauty that was once shown to me and how to express that to others. She may be a painter, or a writer, but most importantly a really good person that will one day continue a legacy of expressing her true self.