Stop Waiting and Start Creating

What is stopping you from creating what you want? Who is telling you to wait? When I first heard about the Teen Art Gallery from Fred Wilson, I was impressed with their initative and drive. The Teen Art Gallery (T.A.G) was founded in 2010 by 17-year-old Audrey Banks when she realized that herself and other young artist had a desire to showcase work in their own gallery. What started as a personal problem grew into connecting with other young artist with the same vision. Together they connected with other over 6,000 young artist on Facebook and had over 700 submissions from 300 artist for their first show. Recently, they raised over $10,000 for their work through a Kickstarter campaign.

“We’re creating our own rules and standards for art. Everything we stand for is flowing through it.”-Sonja Tsypin, 17

Given their drive and desire to showcase their work, T.A.G. has been successful in accomplishing their goals. When everyone else told them to wait, they didn’t listen. Instead, they came together and made their dream a reality. The youth that make up T.A.G. are an example of what you can accomplish nowadays. Like we saw in the interview with Area 6, if you want to showcase your own work the only thing stopping you is yourself. No need to wait if you believe in the work you produce, and want to share it with others. As long as you want it bad enough, you can now make it happen. Stop waiting and start creating.

Teen Art Gallery will be having their next exhibition on March 29th at The Unseen Artist Event, more info can be found here.

Take Action: Shift From Consuming To Producing

Most of our lives are spent doing one of two things: producing or consuming. Day after day we do each, but which one dominates in your life? For years I was a heavy consumer of information, whether it be online or in books. I wanted to learn, so I read, explored and observed. I finally got to the point where I realized I needed to start producing myself and make the shift to being more of a producer. Why was I reading all this stuff? Does anyone care about what I am reading or what I have found out?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world…

We need to fix our political system so that money is no longer so entrenched in our elections, we need to look at the role of businesses in our society and how they affect us, we need to fix our energy system so that we don’t have to rely on fossil fuels and foreign oil to keep us running, we need to eat better foods and exercise to stay healthy and we need to use our resources more efficiently to reduce waste. When I look at all these issues, I see opportunities for our generation to solve these problems, which means there’s plenty of work to do. Solutions to these problems do not have to come from the top down, but through the unification of like-minded individuals.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. —Marianne Williamson

I write this to invite you to start taking action, and never has it been easier to start something (this helps). If you have an idea, stop talking about it and start making it a reality. If you are passionate about an issue, start spreading your knowledge about it and start figuring out solutions on a local level. Be a producer. Foundation: This is the first series of post on Youth Take Action where we will take a glance at the structural issues that affect us and how they provide us with countless opportunites to take action. 

Top