Are you an artist?

Last night I had the luxury of one and a half hours to sit, quietly, while my youngest children enjoyed their Awana program. I wasn't sure if I'd have the pleasure of my friend Susie's company, so I brought along some art supplies so I could be productive whether I was alone or enjoying a chat with her. (Alas, she had errands to run; I missed her -- but I know we all need to use our time wisely;) My youngest daughter had recently purchased some new water colour crayons -- a medium I'd never heard of before -- and I was anxious to try them because, well, they looked pretty fun!

So, while I was creating this altered page tangle,

several people who passed by (and it really wasn't a high traffic spot!) stopped and asked, "Are you an artist?"

Now, given the the origin of this blog, and the convictions I have about us all being artists of one sort or another, you'd think I'd have been able to respond with a confident "Yes" -- or at least a "Well, I'm starting to view myself as one." But my feeble response was, "Oh, no -- I'm just playing with some art stuff that belongs to my daughter!" Then, the conversation moved more comfortably to the tools rather than my work.

Why is that? Maybe it's a confidence thing. Maybe I just haven't thought of myself as an artist long enough. Maybe I've just never had that face-to-face interaction about my art work with strangers. (The reality is, I haven't.) Or maybe, while I'm getting comfortable thinking of myself as an artist, I'm not used to other people viewing me as an artist. Weird, eh? What's the stumbling block? Have you ever experienced such a conundrum in your creative journey?

Anyway -- the water colour crayons were pretty cool. I think I like them better than water colour pencils because they're more intense, though it's harder to do fine details. Have you ever tried them? Got any good project ideas to use them? Leave a comment or email me with your suggestions:)