An Artist’s Manifesto

Let’s make a pact, you and I: let’s choose to romanticize our lives.

Let your days be gently decorated with drala (ordinary magic)—seek out those everyday miracles waiting in an ordinary glance, a quiet breath, or a moment of sudden peace. Indulge in a sense of wonder. Invite more softness and joy into your art, whatever form it takes. Write the story your heart has been whispering for years. Look at the world with the tender, compassionate eye of a photographer like Martine Franck. Wear something that makes you feel wild and luminous, just because, and laugh with the sheer freedom of it.

 But here is the gentle, crucial part: don’t place your creative practice on a pedestal so high it feels unreachable. Please don’t sacrifice your joy to the harsh myths of “all or nothing.” Your creativity was never meant to be tidy or perfect—it is gloriously, beautifully human. It’s messy, full of wrong turns and small, brilliant triumphs. And that is exactly as it should be.

 Never forget: you are an artist simply by being alive. Your desire to create—to write, to paint, to sing, to dance—that yearning in your heart is more than enough. In fact, that longing itself is holy. Prioritize it. Nurture it. This is sacred work. Don’t talk yourself out of it, or shrink into silence. You were not put on this earth to live small. You are not here to disappear. You are here to take up space, to claim your voice, to create.

And you get to share it all on your own terms. Self-publish. Take a pottery class. Start a blog. Turn your Instagram—or even your kitchen wall—into a gallery of your own wonders. Let your home be an altar to the things you truly love.

And then—do it again tomorrow. And the day after that. Create as though it is your daily bread, because in so many ways, it is. This is the work that roots us, that keeps us awake and truly alive. It is how we find steadiness, even when the world feels like it’s spinning out of control.

Remember: Art is resistance. Creativity is revolution. And your beautiful, imperfect life is the most important canvas you will ever have.