Appreciate an Artist Week 2016

If you weren't around about this time last year, then allow me to explain. I've recently created a week-long holiday (yes, shy and introverted me has gone ahead and created a week-long holiday) to celebrate how awesome artists of all kinds are. 

These artists are writers and bloggers and painters and photographers and musicians and digital designers and website creators and actors and poets and screenwriters and sculpture-ers and visual effects artists and directors and whatever else you can think of. There are some artists who create this awesome art without getting paid for it and others who pay the rent with it, and others who make it just because they love it. 

I as a person consume a lot of art. Like, a lot a lot. I read blogs and books and watch TV shows and movies and look at pretty art and photos on Pinterest but despite all this art I consume, I rarely say thanks to the person who created it. That is not cool. Hence this holiday. 

Appreciate an Artist Week is a week when you take the time to tell an artist that you enjoy their work, and that your day was a little bit brighter because of them. You can write a letter or an email or tell it to them personally (if you're lucky enough to know them), but the point is to spread the love, share the joy and just basically be awesome. (The holiday is a week long because I usually have to work up the nerve to tell someone I appreciate them, so I get a week to build up the courage.)

This year, I'm writing to a new favourite author of mine, Patrick Ness. I first got into his with with the Chaos Walking trilogy, and from there I've slowly begun to collect his books and read them with a feverish excitement. His books are heart-wrenching, beautiful and I can usually read his 500+ page books in a day or two, thanks to the incredible pacing. He had a lot of awesome stuff to say on friendship and mental illness and being careful about who you become, and I cannot praise his work enough. I've grown so much as a writer from reading his books, and will be sending him a letter to tell him (as soon as I can work up the nerve). 

I'd like to encourage you to tell an artist that you appreciate them this week, because I can guarantee you that they'll appreciate you right back.

Who are you writing to this year? Have you ever read any of Patrick Ness' books?