Bad Art is Human…Good Art is Human

Published on November 6, 2009

Raise your hand if you have ever done any of the following:

Made a bad meal.
Made a wrong turn while driving.
Wore the wrong shoes.
Mailed a letter with out posting a stamp on it.
Called someone by the wrong name.

I’m sure you’ve done one of them…if not all, at some time or another in your life. We flub up, make mistakes, and do silly-mindless things all the time. We’re human. End of story.

So why do we beat ourselves up when we make bad art?

Why do we doubt our skills, abilities, intentions to be creative, dreams to be an artist–just because we threw some paint together that looked more like road-kill then a gallery masterpiece?

We don’t quit cooking breakfast just because we burnt the toast!

We don’t go home crying that you’ll never be able to drive again because you turned north on 75th avenue instead of south!

We don’t write long-winded, soul-searching journal entries because we wore high heels to an all-day outside picnic near the beach!

We don’t cry late at night that our dreams will never come true because we received a letter back in the mail asking for correct postage. Well, maybe sometimes this happens…but you get my point, right?!

Last, have you ever doubted your heart just because you called your neighbor Betty instead of Betsy?

Same thing happens with our creativity. We slip sometimes. We have off days, bad days, days we think we should be painting, when really we should be sitting in meditation under a mango tree. We have days that we force it. Days that we copy others and fail–when we thought it would be so easy. Days that we’re feeling too ambitious. Days that we forgot to eat breakfast.

So my dear Lovelies, who are new and even seasoned veterans to this journey called Art….remember to be kind to yourself…loving to yourself…and to have a sense of humor every time you face another bad piece of art. In the big picture of the Creative Juicy Life…that bad painting you are crying about is just a burnt piece of toast…and like my mother would do– just scrape off the black part, add a little butter, and deal with it!