"You have a gift." People tell me that all the time—usually us an explanation of why they could never do what I do. Maybe because I've been drawing on everything I can get my hands on since kindergarten, or maybe because I'd had three books published by the time I turned 20, people seem to think that I have access to a kind of creativity they don't.
But I disagree. There's a quote from Vincent Van Gogh that says, "... everything that is really good and beautiful, the inner, moral, spiritual, and sublime beauty in men and in their works, comes from God ..." And I really believe that.
If you start from the premise that you're a human being who's making artwork, that you're creating something, then you open yourself up to all kinds of outside influences that can affect your creativity. But when you think about God as the infinite source, you realize that your job is just to reflect Him. And that takes off a lot of the pressure, which can actually get in the way of expressing creativity.
