by: Maria Lourdes De Vera, RN
When I made the ultimate decision to pursue my interest and immerse myself in the arts. I just followed my heart and carved my own path. To live the life that I have with no regrets. Following a path that is in accordance with my nature. I am an artist and everything else follows. There are no “ifs and Buts.” I just said “I will” I will take the time and the courage to devote myself in the pursuit of arts and perfecting excellence in my own craft. Doing it step by step over time.
Attending social events and being introduced to someone, the usual question will be, “what do you do for a living?” As I reply, “I am an artist-author.” There is that look of a thousand questions. When someone asks, “what kind of a job is that? Or “When are you going to get a real job?”, It becomes a challenge introducing how exciting the life of an Artist is.
No matter how hard and difficult it is living a life of a painter, musician and an author, doing something truly precious to me matters the most. Nothing of great importance comes without a price. To achieve what your heart desires, sacrifices need to be made. If one is not ready and willing to do this, one can simply just forget it and take the more common path.
Choosing a path in life is not so mething out of the extraordinary but it is one that best describes you as a person. It does not require extreme measures or feats of action. This path is one that gives me the space to flourish and become the person I envision myself to be and based on what I truly am. It is that simple one that you perfect every day. One that makes you a better person in each passing day. Behind every successful story are years of hard work, dedication and determination.
Choosing something I hold important asked for change that demands a certain sacrifice. It is the capacity to recreate ourselves is creativity in motion. The choice between comfort and goal. The pain of it all. There is no glory without pain. The inspiration to pursue the higher good, truth or beauty is ART. Creativity is a place, a sanctuary where one is attuned working with his artistic expression.
The life of an artist is labor of love bound by the desire to constantly improve oneself and one’s craft fueled by creativity. Art is a given nature of man. What we do with art is another thing. The desire to create is common in everyone. Art takes a different expression in the profession one has taken and everyone experiences that power pour forth his craft.
Love urges to do more making one expand. To do something unconditionally. The perception and sensitivity of an artist is expansive.
I thought I needed to set aside my nursing and psychology to create my own path in the Arts. I learned to weave as one mantle. All the pain and trials did not come without a purpose. Having found my own true path as an Artist, accepting and appreciating all that I am and what I can become crystallized into my own expressive self and that gave life to the yearnings of the human heart.
It was not any of the given path one can always choose from. The road least taken. It takes more than imagination to envision a better world as it takes the will to ground every thought fashioned with feelings. It is not the path that determines what I am, I choose and carve the path.
Pain does not come without a purpose and does not leave without a gift – the gift of Life and love.
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MARIA LOURDES A. DE VERA is an artist-author, a registered nurse and a licensed professional teacher. Known to her students and other children under her tutelage as Teacher Marielou, she is friendly, unconventional and fun. She spends time doing stuff to sustain her creative nature be it music, visual arts, literary or movement, all of which spice up her enthusiastic spirit.
She is the author of “Art and the Creation Stories”, published by Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc., a very useful book not only for educators but also for anyone who is willing to revive one’s noble calling in a life of creativity, the language of the soul together with one’s articulation of faith towards one’s salvation.
