Welcome to The Artivist Project: Part One
It's me, Hi, I'm the Writer, it's me!
Are you familiar with the concept of recalling what you wanted to be when you were eight, because that’s what you truly desired to be, before the world came in and told you what you could and couldn’t be? I’ve always wanted to be a writer, you know the one that’s in the corner of the coffee shop typing, deleting, pondering, deleting, researching, deleting, wrestling with neurotic notions of imposter syndrome, deleting? The writer that’s in a perpetually pensive state, so they appear absent minded at times but they’re not meaning to be it’s just who they are at their core, to contemplate questions about themselves, the world, and everything in it because they want to help improve it.
How can we make this human experience better? How can we learn from, and grow with, one another? How can we do, and be, better?
The writer that knows they’re not only here to confront and communicate intimately, but to build deep bonds in order to connect one another in their humanness. The writer that wants to help cultivate hope in a seemingly (at times) hopeless existence because this writer (wholeheartedly) believes in humanity. The writer that is also human and deeply flawed, just like everyone else. The writer who also loses hope from time to time, traversing the depths of despair and back again in hopes to share what they’ve learned. The writer that has learned this cycle of melancholy to joy is constant, riding the emotional wave is inevitable, and that the only way to survive it is to ride it together. It’s me, hi, I’m the writer, it’s me.
My name is Abigail Leigh Grausam but I go by Abigail Leigh for obvious reasons. I have a very abrupt German last name that literally translates to gruesome, awful, terrible, horrible, a name given to Kings who were just plain unscrupulous to their subjects, so pretty much all the bad references you can think of. The Grausam name is so undesirable that it once was met, in Deutschland no less, with a shameful scoff, “you must be Austrian, we can’t claim that name,” he said. The German gentleman was joking but the woman next to him then asked, adding to the humor, “what the heck did your family do to get a name like that?!” A story for another time. Needless to say, the distaste for my ancestors’ namesake, in my ancestors’ motherland, was hilariously palpable. What the heck DID my family do?! Maybe one day I’ll own the gruesomeness of Grausam, it has also been called a “pretty punk rock” name. Now that is an identity I can claim, being a punk rock music fan with an aversion to authority, but for now I’ll stick with Abigail Leigh.
Another identity I can claim is, I’m artsy-fartsy and I love the fluff. Described as flowery text, the fluff is also the opinion of the writer that may deter readers from the point. Fittingly so, I will state that in my opinion, the fluff adds on so much more flavor. I love the poetic justice of words and hearing different people’s perspectives. I adore how words are spoken, paired together to make meaning, and how their cadence might sound as they’re strewn together to create poetry and art.
If there is such a thing I was a poet in a past life and will be a linguist in my next, so for now I’ll just blog about it.
I’m borderline obsessive when it comes to research and words and can easily deep dive down rabbit holes for days. I’m addicted to learning and sharing my findings through writing, and sometimes I might overshare but it’s only because I want us all to stay curious and learn together. I do love all things art (creating my own and admiring others) and I want this blog space to reflect that beauty. More to come on that topic and The Artivist Project in future posts.
I cannot claim to be great at writing and I’m an awful example of perfectionism where editing punctuation is concerned, as I’ve conversely been known to be a bit of a perfectionist in other areas of my life. It’s as if all bets are off when using adjectives and commas for this word loving, wanna be poet linguist, control freak. Bring on the run on sentences because that’s where I feel most alive, is when I’m writing about something that lights me up, and there’s no stopping me. That being said, if you like to get straight to the point and consume as little words (or mistakes) as possible to digest meaning from them, then I am not for you.
My main goal for this blog space is to remind us all that we are more alike than not because we are all human. And that’s not to disregard differences among us, it’s important to also acknowledge each others’ differences. One of the many paradoxes of humanity, we’re all different yet we’re all one human race.
Like a puzzle, each of us are unique pieces to the puzzle that are all needed and come together to make the bigger picture of humanity.
There might be times when I am railing against something I feel very passionate about and it may feel divisive to a reader, but it will not be my intention. There are many things, I feel, we could be doing better at as human beings. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, I’m still learning and inviting you all to collaborate with me. My main intention will remain to connect people with more compassion for themselves and each other, to learn and grow from one another, and to always keep the hope alive. Although I have very strong opinions that you might disagree with, and I may even deliver them in unpalatable ways at times, I’m still human just like you.
So, I hope you decide to stay because I have even stronger hope for humanity than I do strong opinions, and that’s like a shit ton of hope y’all!
If you’re still with me, please stay tuned for “Welcome to The Artivist Project Part Two” for more details on what this blog space will be and what you can expect going forward. I’m excited to get creative, sometimes controversial, and connect with you all. Hit the subscribe now button below, so you don’t miss out, and let’s learn and grow together.