Is it too late to be an artist? (By Christopher Pursley)

I believe my desire to be creative started at very young age. I’m not sure if you’re born with creativity or if you become exposed to it and, therefore, develop a creative nature, but I always wanted to create drawings. Unfortunately, for me, the world just wasn’t ready for my beautiful stick-figures—Oh, wait, let’s just say I wasn’t very good at drawing, and I found it very frustrating to try to express myself creatively. Although I was a visionary when it came to what I wanted to express with my art, drawing was just not the medium for me.

As I grew a bit older, I learned that I was skilled at wood-working. Perhaps the 3D world was where I had a gift.  The ability to see something in my head and create it out of wood allowed me to satiate my creative side, but I knew there was more in me to give.

Some years later, I was introduced to photography by a friend of my sister. This seemed to be a creative outlet for me that I could master, so I saved up for my first camera and began taking photographs of everything. I would eat, sleep, and breathe photography for many years. I did portraits and modeling photography, along with landscape and creative photo manipulation. I even went to photography school in my early twenties, learning visual techniques, film development, and theory.

By my late 20s I became bored with taking photographs and switched to design work and building theater and movie sets. This was an outlet where I could use my ability to see things through a figurative lens and manipulate mediums, such as wood, lights, and metal in combination. I studied technical theatre and even worked on a few television shows and movies in the 1990s, building sets for Hollywood. (Did I mention I’m ADHD? I get bored quickly!)

When it came time to settle down, I chose a career in wood-working—building and designing cabinetry for many high-end homes. I got married and had three children, and life just seemed to turn into what life during this stage becomes:  Finding work and making money to support my family. Creativity gave way to practicality, as the story goes. However, choosing not to allow my artistic muscles to atrophy, I always had the eye of an artist. I just tend to see the world differently, and years later, I started working those creative “muscles” again.

Can you relate? Do you desire to be creative but are afraid to venture into the world of art? I’m here as living, breathing proof that it is never too late to start again.

 (To be continued….)