I am only weeks out from a life-changing trip to Rwanda. This is a country where 5% of the population is on the grid for electricity. A place where the gift of ball point pens are received like deposits of pure gold. I tried to explain everywhere I went that I am an artist, but this word received little to no recognition. Even toting my books via motorbike over vast kilometers of dark red dirt and hot bright sun, the real attraction was the words on the page, not my illustrations.

In Rwanda, there are little to no texts written in Kinyarwanda and the novelty of indigenous words on the page overshadowed any fascination with color, line or design.

I didn't mind.

The sophistication of art in the Western world felt absurd to me in such a soulful setting. Last year, I trekked to a Chelsea gallery in New York to see Andy Goldsworthy's clay crack and fall off the walls as an expression of the temporality of art, of work and life. I remember taking in the sight of falling white clay with a sacred hush. One year later, I am standing in the mud house of my best friend's mother, seeing the red mud crack and fall against the house, this time no symbol is necessary.

What is it they say? Art imitates life? Or is it life imitates art? I don't know.

I have to say though, I wondered how much power and movement would come if people had more space or time to pursue creative, abstract, conceptual personal expression. There's something life-giving about giving yourself over to pure process. How many incredible ideas have found their birth in the kind of strange exploration that looks mostly like play from the outside? In what ways does art open the door to courage or risk-taking? How is it that in giving ourselves over to creativity we find so many practical solutions to the things that plague us--both practically or spiritually?

I have no answers to these questions, only a deepening well of curiousity. Here are some links to explore if you, like me, are hungry for all the ways that art can make us bold--no matter where we live, no matter what our limitations.

More about Andy Goldsworthy and making your mark.
Andy Goldsworthy and the art of the seasons.
Andy Goldsworthy and collaborating with nature.
African rock art and all the powerful ancient wisdom that can flourish.
African painters pave the way for creativity to take a new turn on the continent.