Making art is like eating for Jane. She creates without over-thinking or caring too much. With a five-year-old, colors fill spaces like words fill the air.

I have never heard Jane look at a painting she created 6 months ago and say, “I am unhappy with this painting now, let’s get rid of it”. Dissatisfaction doesn’t cross her mind. Even greater beauty is in the way she can make and forget, make and forget. It’s the process that intrigues her, with really nothing precious about the final piece at all. It’s the adults in her life that have introduced the idea of cradling and coddling a masterpiece.

Most likely, with each passing year, she’ll get more and more fussy, more and more hindered about creating things. Kids become self-conscious about results. Then disappointed. Then fearful. A process that was once a part of her core becomes “talent”. And she’ll wonder if she has “it” or not.

With a few big projects on the horizon, I can feel this freeze. The fearful stepping in and saying, how are you going to take that on? Someone will pay you to do that? Will I be good enough? Look at what that artist is doing! It's days like today I wonder how to get back. I want the five-year-old freedom. The ability to make and forget, make and forget. Capture an image and let it live, without doubting, rethinking, editing, deleting. Just let it be. And believe.