The other day we were walking through the neighborhood when suddenly a huge lightening drew its mark on the sky. A few seconds later it was followed by a boisterous thunder. My 5-year old daughter, who had never been afraid of thunderstorms, completely freaked out. She started crying hysterically and it took several minutes to calm her down. We stopped at a friend’s house to play and later when we came home she drew this picture.

I was puzzled by this picture in many ways: First, I am amazed how she was able to express not only what she saw but how it felt to her. You can recognize the shape of the lightening but more striking is the atmosphere of darkness and fear and how this roar of a thunder accumulated into this black amorphous shape. There were no clouds and the sky wasn’t dark in reality but for her this experience darkened everything around her. Secondly, I am in awe how she intuitively used art to vent, to express herself, to cope with the frightening experience she just had. Art, as a way of self-healing. Art, as a way of letting go of bad feelings. And for her it seems to be the most natural thing in the world.

I am posting this here because my wish is that art had a place in everyone’s life. It is in our nature as humans to express ourselves, to share our experiences (good or bad or funny or poetic) in a creative way. It helps us. It is good for our well-being. It clears our mind and sets us free. Big words, I know – but I have seen so many people who are afraid of painting because they are afraid to mess up, to not be good at it. And I so wish we could all come back to this pure and natural way of expression through art and let go of those misleading judgments. For me more then anything else art is expression.