Je suis une artiste.
I haven’t always been able to say, boldly, “I am an artist!” It took me decades to see it, and then a little longer to say it and believe it.
I can remember during my CrossFit days mid 2020 to fall of 2023, (to be clear, I went once a week and modified like crazy - I did it primarily as a discipline, doing something weekly that I didn’t exactly love, but that made me stronger) a fellow CrossFitter in talking with me proclaimed, “Oh, you’re an artist!” I disagreed. I liked to create, but I did not and could not see myself as an artist.
Yet, at that time, I had designed my Pilates studio (ALIGN | mind body soul in Columbus, Indiana), including designing and building a wall to partition the space and display the chakra mandalas as the first thing you’d see upon entering. I dreamt up and built the sunburst closet doors and I also designed and built a live-edge standing desk. I created an intentional color scheme, crafted a business archetype, designed a logo, and created a website. Looking back, it was a creation, sending a clear message of peace, tranquility, inner connection and inner alignment.
During that same time period, I was also exploring ceramics in Nashville, Indiana with Holly of Holly Pots Stoneware. I was looking for another way to feel grounded, and touching clay for hours every week was just that. I created many pieces, some hand-built, some using molds, several on the wheel. I would go there at least weekly and just create for hours. I could write an entire blog post on my time spent creating with Holly, and maybe I will…
By fall of 2025, I had moved across the country and was starting to feel settled in Seattle, and an image of a woman with three birds hovering above water kept showing up. Two birds were in the air. One was sitting on her shoulder. I knew these three birds to be representative of my career paths, paths that were keeping me afloat. Two were in the air: I was teaching yoga and Pilates -and- beginning to build my part-time solo law practice. But the other bird stumped me. I knew it must be something so familiar and close to me, as it was sitting on my shoulder. I must be very comfortable with this bird and know it well for it to be sitting there, but I had no clue what the third bird represented.
A November hypnotherapy session had me stepping away from teaching yoga and Pilates. My task was clear: focus on building one pillar of my life. It was in this extra space where I had time to reflect. I realized my creative side has always been there. I love to dance, choreograph, write poetry, create with flavors and colors in the kitchen, sew, paint.
I also realized that is who I was as a little girl. Little Melissa loved her easel, dancing, choreographing, singing, song writing, writing poetry, creating fashions, making bracelets, and writing short stories.
Turns out, I’ve been a creative all along. It just took me some time to see it. Angie at CrossFit was right: I am an artist! I’m a dreamer, painter, poet, creative, writer. I always have been. ;)
