Dear Artist, 

How glorious it is to have imagination, color, song, pen, camera, body. Especially at a moment such as this! Us, the artists, we have a calling. We know it deep down. It’s past the self doubt, past feeling misunderstood sometimes by the world, way down past the ego and the could-have-beens, there it is. Our calling to create. To imagine. To make.

I’ve been thinking about how the act of rest is different than the act of disengaging due to fear or discomfort. One of the biggest things I’ve already been learning over the past 6 months during my recent artist residency has been that true rest is an essential part of the creative process. And then engaging intentionally and intuitively with our craft comes after. 

My hope for you, for all of us artists during this scary and uncharted time of quarantine is that we would not numb the tension or discomfort, but instead, that we would with immense love for self and others, rearrange the pieces of fear and confusion and tune our colors and instruments and words towards more honesty, more warmth, more passion and freedom and love and grace than ever. 

I am so grateful to be able to paint. Being a new full time artist is already a little wild and scary and unknown, but these circumstances feel like they’ve left me no other option but to lean into creating even more. I have no idea what’s going to happen and how we’ll all bounce back from this world event, but I know I can paint, sing, make something beauty from the freedom of my heart and mind and body. The rush and loud whistle of productivity, speed, hustle that I have found myself resisting for months has suddenly dissipated as the whole world has settled into a different kind of stillness. A sobering gift of time and a different kind of urgency. An urgency to love more, to be more compassionate, to share in vulnerability, to hold the hands of loved ones a little tighter, to give more gratitude for the breath in our lungs and the days in our years. 

Never have we had the opportunity to create in response to circumstances such as this. What a precious thing. Please don’t hold back. In your not-quite-ready, imperfect, certain uncertainness, I call on you to create something new. Only you can make what is just below the surface of your heart and hands. It’s so delicate and so strong. This originality, this beauty that is inside of you. 

Dear artist, I’m so thankful you exist. I can’t wait to see what you’ll make. 

With our colors, words, shapes, songs, and images, let us build an altar together for this season. May it be a reminder of this gift of time, this tension of wrongness and beauty. And may we remember, through the art we create in these uncertain times, that life is so dear, every hour and embrace a gift, and that love, though precious above all, isn’t scarce. It’s a fountain. And as we move forward in our lives as artists, let us always draw from the fountain of love to create and celebrate every day. 

With gratitude and love, 
Rachel

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Website: www.rachelbarbera.com
Instagram: @rachelbarbera.art