Above is a detail from the recent community mural that I designed and led with Grove City College students and residents of the surrounding area as part of Project Okello’s community art event “Wells for Hope.” The event raised $800+ in funds for clean water in Uganda, and it raised the creative spirit within so many students.

It is so easy to stifle the desire to create. The day of painting the mural was one full of awkward stares at the three five foot by three foot panels.

“Oh, I’m not creative; I’ll just mess it up,” was the resounding chorus of my afternoon.

I sometimes think that the reason we are afraid to act or create is because we are afraid of what we will see of ourselves inside of what we do.

Art is story; it’s character. In realism, viewers and creators are able to see themselves in regards to the scene laid before them–they are one of the characters or they are in the scene watching it take place.

It is in abstract art that Man can become haunted by his inner workings because through great skill of the abstract artist, a scene or an idea of a scene is created that the viewer has to define through the guided eye of the creator.

There is a sort of swell to abstract art–it is revivifying and vibrant. But within the swell there is an ache–the pairing of tragedy and romance that is necessary for any work of art to become a great work of art.

And that says a great deal of life–not just in creating artwork but in acting in any of life’s spheres. In life there is great tragedy. But there is great romance.

So when we fear creating, getting out of bed, applying for a job, asking a radiant woman out on a date or being vulnerable with a lover, we experience that life is tragedy. But it is when we do the thing that we fear that we experience the romance, beauty, truth, and adventure of life.

And that is why I create.