The most trouble I ever got in as kid came from drawing.

In elementary school, I’d doodle in notebooks and on newspaper pages. I drew terrible caricatures of my teacher, which my best friend proceeded to later show to him (thanks again, buddy), and I drew hats and sunglasses and bodies onto head shots in the paper. Though artistically terrible, something about this always proved fun and relaxing.

But then at a school basketball tournament between games, I took a Sharpie and drew sunglasses and a goatee on a picture taped to a girl’s desk. Bad idea. Little did I know, it was her long lost brother and it was the only picture she had of him. Oops.

But now, that experience reminds me that author Kurt Vonnegut once wrote in a letter that artistic endeavors, no matter how good or bad, will “make your soul grow.”

That quote was on my mind often as the Herald newsroom worked on our July-August Austin Living. Now I don’t like to play favorites here at the Herald … but that’s what I’m about to do. I’ve done little to keep it a secret that the July-August issue is one of my favorite projects to work on. The issue is out now and available for free here at the Herald, 310 Second St. NE.

My apologies to the other five Austin Living editions of the year. I love working with you guys too and all, but July-August has that extra special something: Austin Expression, a literary magazine within the issue.

The July-August issue has grown as our annual arts issue, and Austin Expression gives local artists and writers the chance to share their work.

Now if I’m a bit over-excited, you don’t need to worry. A friend has already ribbed me — in public and in front of me — for my Austin Expression over-eagerness. Since the Fourth of July weekend is a time to celebrate freedom, you should feel free to join my friend: Go ahead, mock me. Get it out of the way by letting out a laugh or a snort of derision. Feel better? Good. Let’s go on, but I have an assignment for you in a bit.

Part of my Austin Expression obsession stems from my becoming a staunch supporter of the arts. As I wrote in the editors’ note for the July-August Austin Living, I’ve grown frustrated with those people who dismiss the arts because of money. You know the type: the people who dismiss anything, including art and writing, that doesn’t make them big money.

Those people woefully miss the point of creativity. Vonnegut, writing in the letter I mentioned earlier to Xavier High School in 2006, expresses this point better than I ever could:

“Practice art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and make fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”

Thanks to Mr. Vonnegut, I realized the July-August Austin Living feels special because we get to share the act of creating and, hopefully, all our souls grow a little because of it.

In his letter, Vonnegut went on to urge the students to create:

“Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you’re Count Dracula.”

So I hope you’ll do two things:

1. Check out our Austin Living to see Austin Expression and our arts-themed stories so you can appreciate the creativity of your friends and neighbors.

2. Follow Vonnegut’s advice and create something yourself. Heck, doodle a picture on your Sunday newspaper. You know that picture of me up to the left? Draw on it. Give me sunglasses, a funny hat, vampire fangs, anything. Create something to make your soul grow.