Don’t you think this is a great quote?

“What is ‘no’? Either you have asked the wrong question or you have asked the wrong person. Find a way to get the ‘yes’.”

This applies perfectly to our doubts about our own worth as creative people – I have heard so many stories from friends who say they are not “creative” or “artistic” because someone in the past criticized their attempts . Seems to me that you just have to approach it from another direction that is your own, and create with joy that feels right to you and not be influenced by someone else’s judgment. Find a way to get the “Yes.” OK, off the soap box, but I really get frustrated when creative people don’t realize how talented they can be.

This quote came, via a friend in England, from a book that I just ordered,  “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?” by Jeanette Winterson (2011). You can read some of her thoughts about this book on her blog. Here’s an online review excerpt:

It’s a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in an north England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the Universe as Cosmic Dustbin.

I don’t often talk about a book that I haven’t read, but this one sounds like a keeper – will let you know what I think about it a little later. In the meantime, I’ll remind myself that there are different ways to get to “Yes,” and that if my work (below) that I took to the juried Art League show yesterday is rejected, I’ve just been asking the wrong people!