Art is like dancing....

Yesterday, I wrote about Lucy's stamps. On the sheet titled "Lucy Dances" is one of my favorite sayings:

Art is like dancing
There is a beat,
there are steps and moves
and you create
a NEW form of music
for the world to hear.
It has the passion
of a great orchestra
and it has the quiet sound
of a single piano key.
It can take you places
you never knew existed
It an make you feel
right at home.

I NEVER understood art until I retired and started creating. Oh, I thought I did, I even took graduate level classes in art appreciation in college. But I truly never understood what art can do for your soul until I started creating my own art.

When I was in my early 20s, I was an Arthur Murray Dance student. My partner and I were good enough that when we danced, everyone else sat down and watched. The beat of the music dictated the steps that we took. The audience watched and listened as we swept ourselves across the floor. I could lose all sense of time, place, existence and surroundings when I was dancing with him.

Art does not require a partner and I find it is just like dancing. Although I don't "hear" music when I am creating, I know that is is the same process. I "hear" the beauty of what I'm doing. Sometimes I hear myself giggling at what is being done. I think my feelings about the process of creating art is perfectly summed up in this stamp. It is truly allowing the right side of the brain to consume yourself....to start at 8 am and not even have a hint that it's now midnight....to completely let yourself be consumed by the process of creating something that might bring joy to someone else.

Even my stamps, Lucy Dances, came from that phase of my life where I went ballroom dancing night after night!