Hanging with Niki
It wasn’t made for anyone. But it found someone anyway.
Some paintings find their place long before they find their name.
This piece hangs on Niki’s wall now.
When I finished it, I didn’t love it. I wasn’t even sure I liked it at all.
But somehow, it found a home, not because it was perfect or matched what I hoped for but because it spoke to someone else in a way I couldn’t predict.
It’s a reminder that even when we don’t love what we create, it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth something to someone else. Our job is to create the work, to let it live outside of us, and to trust that it might still find the right hands, even if they didn’t find the one we expected. Make the art anyway. Especially when you’re not sure you love it. You never know whose wall — or heart — it was meant to land on.
Not every piece needs to be a masterpiece. Some pieces are meant to be bridges — from one version of ourselves to the next. Some pieces are intended to mirror someone else’s story, not our own. And some are just meant to exist, to prove we showed up when it would have been easier to stay silent.
Art isn’t about controlling the outcome. It’s about showing up to the process. It’s about making something real enough that it can find a life outside of us — even when we don’t fully understand it yet. And honestly? If we only made things when we were sure they’d be “good,”
we’d miss out on making the things that might be needed.
Some art will stay with you.
Some art will outgrow you.
Some art will heal someone else in ways you’ll never know.
But it can’t do that if you don’t make it.
Not every piece is ours to love.
Some pieces are ours to create — and let go.
marysaysmeh 