Community Means We — Creative projects that bring people together.

By Harmony Thiessen

Community means we. Two words that sound simple until you really sit with them. We implies something bigger than me — bigger than you, too. It means that whatever I’m carrying today, whatever you’re figuring out, whatever feels impossible or beautiful or just kind of a lot right now… we’re figuring it out while sharing the planet with a bunch of other people who are doing the exact same thing.

That’s kind of wild when you think about it. And kind of wonderful.

Why Community is the Thing I Keep Coming Back To

What makes a place feel like home versus just a location where you sleep? It’s not the zip code. It’s not even the mountains (though wow, some of you really lucked out on that front).

It’s the people who wave back. The neighbor who notices. The stranger who holds the door and actually makes eye contact. The person in a class who’s nervous, just like you, and laughs with you when things go sideways.

Community is built in those tiny, unremarkable moments — and creativity is one of the best tools we have for making more of them.

Creativity Isn’t Art. Let’s Clear That Up.

Here’s the thing I want more people to know: creativity is not about being an artist.

Creativity is the way you talk a tense coworker off a ledge by finding the one thing you both agree on. It’s how you stretch the grocery budget and still produce something your family actually wants to eat. It’s solving a logistical nightmare at work by approaching it sideways instead of head-on. It’s figuring out how to say a hard thing to someone you love without blowing up the relationship.

Creativity is a flow (links to a YouTube Video of mine — a flexible, resourceful way of moving through difficult or constraining circumstances instead of being stopped by them. Every single one of us uses it every single day, whether we call it that or not.

And here’s the fun part: when we tap into that flow together — in a room, with our hands busy and our guards down — something pretty great happens. We remember we’re capable. We see it in each other. The conversation gets good. Someone makes you laugh unexpectedly and suddenly you know their name and their dog’s name and you’ve made plans to get coffee.

That’s community. And it started with creativity.

Special Note about the Photo

Photo Source:  I did ask AI to generate a picture for this post that depicted my dream of a Community Means We Public Art Project. Would’nt it be amazing if the different neighborhoods in Bellingham WA where I live, and in your town where you live, had mosaic inserts into a street, or a moasic wall over a bridge, mosaic neighborhood lending library boxes, etc.  If you are in Whatcom County and have an idea about how I can get funding for a project like this in our county – please reach out to me here.

The Magic That’s Already in You

Every person carries something a little extraordinary — a particular way of seeing, solving, making, connecting. I call it your magic, and I mean it.

Your magic might look like the way you tell a story that makes everyone lean in. It might be the way you organize chaos into something workable, or the way you make people feel welcome the moment they walk in. It might show up as the most unexpectedly gorgeous pressed flower lantern anyone in the room has ever seen — made by someone who walked in saying “I’m not creative.”

(Spoiler: you are.)

None of that is small. All of it is creative. And all of it is you.

What I’m building with Harmony Thiessen Art is a space where people get to remember that about themselves — where you come in wondering if you’re “creative enough” and you leave knowing that was never the right question.

Community Means We — Wherever You Are

Community Means We isn’t about one city or one neighborhood. It’s about the idea that wherever you live, whoever your people are, there’s something powerful about showing up together and making something — even if “something” is a little weird and lopsided and exactly right.

I’ll be hosting Community Means We events regularly — at least once every three months — in different places, with different projects, all centered on that same idea: creativity is for everyone, community is built in the doing, and we’re more fun together than apart. If you have ideas, locations or comments – please reach out to me here.

The first one is happening in Bellingham, WA on July 25, 2026 — a Pressed Flower Lantern class, free, all materials provided, and we’d love to have you. A big thank you to the Whatcom Art Center for so kindly donating the space — it makes events like this possible and we’re really grateful.

 Get all the details and register here: 

Harmony Thiessen Art is committed to making creative experience accessible to everyone, everywhere. The Community Means We series is sponsored by Harmony Thiessen Art and the generous people of our community.