My Mona Lisa is a martini glass...

My hands and arms are completely covered with paint that I can't scrub off.

How cool is that??

I've always wanted to be artsy and creative, because I admire artists and their work so much. But alas, my hands are primarily used to type out stories, not to sculpt or paint a masterpiece.

I was talking with someone recently about an artists village that is in the works here in Naples. Jokingly, I asked if there was any room for "starving journalists."

With the straightest face in the world, the man's answer was "absolutely."

I guess what I do can be considered "art." I craft stories out of nothing, using the tools at my disposal and the world around me to create pieces that others can enjoy or reflect upon.

I guess that's really what art is -- taking the things that you feel, that you see, that you know and making them into something others can appreciate.

All the same, I feel like my work is just too literal, as newspaper articles don't (and shouldn't) leave things to the viewer's imagination.

I've had the extreme privalege of visiting some of the finest art museums in the world: The Louvre, Musee' d' Orsay, the Tate and Tate Modern and the National Gallery of Art. In each of those places, I was able to marvel at the works of revered artists, who seemed to be bursting with things to tell me through their works of art. Though not of all their messages were clear, I always felt inspired by the genius of creative art and its deeper meanings.

This weekend, I visited an art festival in Naples, and, as usual, I was mesmerized by many of the works I saw. When I came to a neat (albiet, very literal) painting that didn't look too difficult to recreate, I decided to try my hand at the painting game.

I stayed up nearly all night mixing paints, trying new techniques and just having a blast creating very amateurish works of art. In the end, I had two paintings of a wine glass and martini glass to show for my efforts. They're certainly never pieces you'll find hanging in any gallery, but they gave me a sense of accomplishment and glee to do.

I took a blank canvas and, for the first time ever, made it my creation.

Cool.