Letting Your Artist Out

I *feel* art very intensely and long just as intensely to be able to express my artistic creativity. All of my artistic endeavors fail dismally, though. I feel a drawing, a picture, a painting, and the moment I pick up an art medium like clay, charcoal, watercolors, paints, *anything* it feels clunky in my hands and the product is a farce of what is in my head and heart. I've never felt that I was graceful enough or brave enough to do dance (although in my "old age" here I'm starting to throw caution to the wind and considering taking dance with 4-year-old C). I can sing moderately and I'm not tone deaf, but I also recognize that I will never, no matter how much I practice, replicate the intense emotions and concepts in the music I love. I'm a moderate seamstress, meaning I can do some basic mending and can use my sewing machine to make curtains. Needlepoint is just not in my repertoire.

Okay, so I have all this bottled up artistic expression with no outlet, right? Wrong! It has taken me years to realize that my artistic expression is in my cooking. I love the texture, the flavor, the color, the aroma of food. Making it healthier and different adds another element of challenge. Combining all of the different cuisines we like allows us to travel in time and space with every bite. Childhood favorites, foods that formed your childhood, foods from special trips, foods from places you want to go but haven't yet, even food from different times in the past that help you to understand history in a whole new way!

Just think of what food can do for you in a way that has nothing to do with nourishment of your body. Food is for your soul, too. When the wind is howling and the snow is blowing, a steaming bowl of stew is amazing. The rich brown gravy of the stew coats the tender chunks of meat, the bright chunks of sweet carrot, the mild cubes of potato, the delicate bite of the onion, the mysterious earthiness of the mushrooms, the herbs. To go with that stew are steaming, tender, flaky biscuits just begging for butter, for the dark sweet flavor of apple butter that reminds you of fall's bright days. This meal makes you feel warm, loved, secure, comforted, things beyond mere vitamins, protein, and fiber.

Now think of the last time that you ate a favorite food from your childhood that you haven't had in many years. Of how much you look forward to certain foods that you only have at the holidays and that you have to have at the holidays or it just isn't the same. Those are your artistic expressions. The foods that evoke a feeling bigger than yourself, that share ideas and expereinces with another person in ways mere words cannot, that please all of your senses. Look at your food, really look at your food, and see the textures and the colors. Smell it, smell how the components are separate and then come together to make something entirely different. Taste it, let it move across your tongue, and let the experience show you what has been there all along. Let your artist out and explore your food palette!