Bravery in a Digitized World.
Acknowledging Your Brave Personal Expressionism in a Digital World.

By Dr. Gregory Lyons, PsyD, LCPC.
8/7/2025.

In an era of filters, AI-generated perfection, and social media artists presenting with flawless, photorealistic art, you may feel that your creative endeavors, whether simple, plain, or honest, might feel out of place.

That thought? It’s mistaken. And here’s why.

Throughout history, art has been so many things: written, drawn, and sculpted. Throughout history, art has taken many forms—written, drawn, sculpted, and performed. Today, we’re surrounded by the towering mastery of Da Vinci or the vast canvas epics of Rembrandt. We stand in awe of them, and maybe you’ve thought:

“There’s no way I could be that good.”

But I’m here to tell you: you don’t have to be. Your creative expressions are meaningful just as they are.

 I developed a new modality that touches on this subject called Creation Activation Therapy (CreATe™). It’s about the in-between spaces a person takes cognitively or unconsciously when they are moving the pencil, brush, or mouse. It is the joy, the struggle, and the confidence of the moment, and the smile on your soul when you finish.

When you think of something to draw, sketch it on the paper. You are the only person who could have decided to portray what everyone is thinking in that way. Some artists try to repaint or meticulously reproduce paintings like The Mona Lisa, and it still presents a little of what they are, who they are in the end.

I see a lot of social media artists post their drawings that are so rich in photorealism, they look like photographs. And I admit, sometimes this makes me feel a little dejected about my artistic endeavors. But we have to rewind our thinking. All the best to them for being able to present their talents in such a way, but as I reflect, that is not what I am about. If I want a photo of something, I’d take a picture of it, or use AI to generate it, or pull a couple of things into Photoshop. 

We all could probably draw our favorite anime character or superhero if we tried over and over again. I would wager that some of these presentations by social media artists may be AI renderings. 

But what you do comes from your heart, from your soul. You picked the pose and the colors used. Why did you choose the subject? What did it mean to you? I do admit that some photorealistic pictures have a subject or thought presented as a theme, but to me, they are too sterile. They are dictating what I should see, what I should feel. Suppose it is of an easily identifiable and socially relevant character. In that case, we already feed our expectations of what the image represents, so in a sense, it may feel that we should internally validate the presentation of the drawing, but not the meaning. 

But as artists, we are different. We can be a six-year-old drawing in crayons a purple fox with the night as its tail, stealing alarm clocks, because it's on a spiritual adventure dedicated to fighting the modern mechanized world. Does the medium or our level of artistic ability make it less precious or important than the photorealistic picture of a regular fox?

We are all beautiful, creative oddities. We create with your hands, with your private, messy feelings, and strong passions. We are creating a visual presentation of a view of the universe that no one else has.

We have a vision that was born from within.

You are not alone in all of this. I believe we are part of a silent, unheard populus with a lineage of sacred creation.

That is why there is a new movement that is going to be called  The Atelier Sanctum Guild ™. It will be an online quiet collective of artists—an online sanctum for those who honor the emotional, spiritual, and imperfect beauty of creative expression. 

It is not a brand, there are no strings, and we are not chasing trends, or trying to take advantage of or sell you or your art. It will be a place for us to connect and joyfully share in a free, safe, unconditionally positive space. 

We are the sketch drawn in silence, the whisper of soul into shape and color.

This guild was created as a response to the beautiful practice of putting a pencil, pen, mouse, or brush to the open page—to remind artists that discipline, depth, and inner truth matter. If you’ve ever felt too strange, too sensitive, or too insecure to show your creative presentations to anyone, this place was made with you in mind. 

There is no age limit, no level of creativity that will be considered “good enough”. If anything, there may be a moratorium on representations that are deemed too professional. This keeps it a safe, non-judgmental place for us.