ARTISTIC ACTIVITY IS YOUR BIRTHRIGHT

"When was the last time you made music? When did you last dance? What was the last story you told? When was the last time you engaged in the 'work' of art?"

So asks Tom Crockett, in his book, "The Artist Inside: A Spiritual Guide to Cultivating Your Creative Self (Bantam Doubleday Dell Trade Paperbacks).

"So Why is this important? Most of us don't consider ourselves artists," Crockett explains. "Even if we secretly enjoy expressing ourselves creatively, we may still be frightened of claiming to be artists ... The point is that being an artist, expressing oneself artistically, is a birthright, not a career path."

In his book, Crockett shows how being creative, or expressing artistically comes from four basic human activities: Finding, Arranging, Altering, and Making open up artistic options for everyone, even for those of us who cannot yet imagine that we have the ability to create art.