Make Bad Art! Plus, Tiff Randol
A Monday afternoon hello.
When it comes to writing, I’m a perfectionist. I spend far too long agonizing over every individual word. Once a piece is published, I often berate myself for not doing a better job. It’s why I haven’t written the novel that I’ve dreamed about writing since I was a kid. I’ve tried many times. And each time, I get a few thousand words in, edit those words over and over, and finally give up, convinced that no one would read my stupid book anyway.
But when it comes to visual art, I’m all about the mess, baby! For whatever reason, I’m A-okay with making mistakes in my paintings or screwing up a drawing. I love the process of actually making something that didn’t exist in the world. I do it just for the pure joy of it. There’s no concern that no one will like it or that I’ll need to fix it. I just work on it until it’s done and smile that I made a thing.
Example: the other day, I decided to spend an afternoon painting while my son and husband were camping. I made a trek to a local arts supply store and treated myself to various artsy items. Then I sat at my kitchen table and poured globs of acrylic onto a canvas and just let the brush do its thing. No agenda, no concerns. And better yet, no screens. Just me, a canvas, a brush, and some pretty colors.
And I have to say, I kind of love what came of it.
I don’t know if it’s considered “good,” nor do I care. I just had fun with it. And the entire time, I had Amie McNee’s voice in my head saying, “Make shitty art.” In other words, make the art even if it’s not perfect. Even if it’s not something others will like.
Now, if I could just get my writer brain to take that advice…
I hope you had a chance to read my past two interviews. I didn’t send a Monday greeting last week because, quite honestly, this world has been a lot lately and I just didn’t have it in me to write that morning. Spending the past few days painting and reading and playing board games with friends and going to the movies with my mom definitely improved my mood, despite [gestures wildly] everything else being a hot mess.
Joy Clark was lovely and so inspiring. Hazel Gaynor’s writing process was fascinating. If you haven’t had a chance to read their interviews, please do. This coming Friday I’ll share my recent talk with Tiff Randol, musician and co-founder of the nonprofit Mamas in Music.
Also, can you believe I’ve published 51 interviews?!? OMG. I cannot. If you’re not yet a paying subscriber, or you want to switch from monthly to annual, there’s still a sale going on for new annual subscriptions. Until June 30th, you can get a year’s subscription for $25—just over $2/month.
Thank you for being here and for reading this far! It means more than you know!
Wishing you a wonderfully creative week!